Freelancer: A New Generation
by Dirk3K
Summary: This is basically an idea I had for a story about the good old game Freelancer. The plot takes 30 years after the events in the campaign and involves OCs of me and my friends as well as the OG characters from the game. Expect somewhat long and inconsistent updates (sorry in advance). That being said, I am doing this because there's not enough stories about this game. Enjoy!
1. Prologue

In the 23rd century, mankind faced its darkest hour. In the middle of a war of proportions never seen before, humanity was torn. Fighting had gone on for so long that neither side knew what they were exactly fighting for anymore. The only thing that was known was that there were two sides, The Coalition and The Alliance. For decades and decades to no end, the two sides fought over the same piece of rock; ranging from nearby planets, to other solar systems altogether mankind was locked into a giant competition for land. After so long, one side eventually gained the upper hand: The Coalition. In a desperate attempt to save what was left of their people, the Alliance launched five large sleeper ships with enough survivors to start over. The catch: they would have to break their way through a Coalition blockade right outside of Uranus. The goal was for them to start over and to rid themselves of the greed that had befallen them for so long. Each sleeper ship was named after the nation of which its inhabitants it carried: the Bretonia, the Rheinland, the Kusari, the Hispania, and the Liberty were the last hope for the Alliance as they attempted to start anew. In a miracle that can be described as only that, the colony ships broke through the blockade and headed for the Sirius System. One by one, the remaining Alliance bases fell, until the last base that was settled on Pluto was left. Gathering all their remaining forces, the Alliance prepared for one last valiant stand. The battle had just begun, but the war was not close to being over.

Just after the battle had started to take place, they had arrived; a new species of life that had never been discovered by humans. The ship that appeared to the two fighting sides was a beautiful work of technology that ranged from a dark violet, to a sky blue in color. The components of the ship shone brightly as pulsated with each passing second. The engine and structure of the ship gave the inflection that it was a giant jellyfish. For a period, the two fighting sides were awestruck. All the differences that were once held onto by humans seemed to have disappeared. That however, was only for a few linking seconds as they realized the new creatures were not friendly. With one loud screeching noise and a giant flash, a projectile launched from what appeared to be a mouth of the ship. The missile flashed past through the Solar System in the blink of an eye straight into the Sun. Before anyone could react, the ship cloaked itself and disappeared. What it left however was enough to rid life in the Milky Way as humanity knew it. The missile ripped a large hole in the Sun itself, causing an explosion that sent millions of tons of molten material and solar energy that destroyed everything. No ships, moon, or planets were able to survive. Well, there of course was an exception. By sheer luck, a man by the name of Atticus Rockford survived. Being the only living member of humans to see this new alien menace, he knew what he had to do. Someone had to warn the colonists in Sirius what had just happened. Someone had to tell them that humans had found its true enemy: The Nomads. Rockford had been spared for a reason, whether by God's will, or sheer karma, he was destined to be the messenger of humans… that was over 800 years ago when human beings came to Sirius to rebuild their lives and preparing for the nomad invasion of the colonies.

About thirty years ago, a station known as Freeport 7 in the Sigma 17 system was suddenly destroyed by unknown ships that had appeared out of nowhere. The few survivors were immediately taken to planet Manhattan in the New York System and their history was varied. People from Kusari, Bretonia, and even the Border Worlds were all shoved into an armored transport and taken into Liberty space. It all started in the New York System nearby Planet Manhattan. "Attention Newark Station, this is the RNC Donau, requesting clearance to dock with your station over." "Affirmative Donau, you are cleared for docking point 6, Liberty welcomes you and Admiral Schultzky." It was the beginning of what was supposed to be a peaceful talk about the discovery of alien artifacts found on distant planets in the Omicron System between Rheinland's chief Admiral and President Jacobi of Liberty. Artifacts were insanely valuable in Liberty because they were believed to belong to an alien civilization and they consisted of everything from pots and idols to the most eye-catching jewelry. The discussion between the two officials was classified but it was believed that the new artifacts found by the Rheinland exhibition were different from previous artifacts. They showed signs of being active and were extremely dangerous. Before the Donau could dock however, a wing of fighters belonging to a terrorist organization known as the order took it out, killing Schultzky and everybody aboard. One man on the scene was a Freeport 7 survivor by the name of Edison Trent.

"Great, first Freeport 7, now this happens. Is it just me or am I some sort of bad luck magnet that brings destruction everywhere I go? Here I am, just after I accepted a mission that was given to me by some Liberty Security Force Officer name Jun'ko Zane (what kind of name is that anyway) and now the one organization that was supposed to be Liberty proof somehow gets through and takes out the one ship that should have been untouchable. It seems like my life just keeps getting better and better the longer I'm away from Bretonia." Trent was no stranger to accidents, but that never made things any easier. Many things continued to happen to Trent, it was as if he was the Atticus Rockford of his generation: the one who was destined to lead humanity against the nomads. As Trent continued to help around Liberty things not only began to happen to him, but also to the people around him. Freeport 7 survivors were disappearing, government officials acting more extreme on every level, and people broke into sides about the artifact problems in Sirius. One side wanted to take control of alien artifacts and disperse them evenly amongst their people. The other group of people wanted to keep artifacts out of the systems and ban them altogether. Although never mentioned specifically, legend has it that when the Rheinland found the active alien artifacts, it released the nomads into Sirius as well as let the existing fleets know of where the rest of humans was hiding. Poor Trent was caught in the middle of all of it. People from every which way started to hunt him and his friends. Michael King, who was there at the scene of the Donau with Trent and who ended up showing him the ropes on crime fighting and Liberty in general, and Jun'ko Zane who had been his partner in crime throughout the entire chase by Rheinlanders. When the last Freeport 7 survivor was killed in front of Trent by a Liberty Navy Officer, he had dropped what looked like an artifact. This is where all the trouble started. Before he knew what, he was doing, he picked up the alien rock and fled Liberty with Juni (Jun'ko) as they were hunted by Liberty, Rheinland, and even Bounty Hunters. After making it to Bretonia, they had found two doctors who had worked with each other back in the day when the new artifacts were discovered. Constantly being chased by Rheinland out of Bretonia space and into Kusari, Trent and the gang finally settled down in Tau-23, a system that is bullied within an asteroid field known as The Barrier. With the scientists safe, Trent and Juni moved into Kusari space and recovered key items to the artifact and overthrowing the corrupt Governor Takegi. "Blah Blah Blah Clayton, enough of the *hic* Hi-hic-story lesson. Yak know, you li' ta ramble when your drunk."


	2. Chapter 1: Four Friends

**Planet Manhattan, Present Day**

 **"Whatever Damian, I was just trying to answer the question of how humans ended up here in the first place. Don't even know why I bother though, you can't hold your booze down like you used to. If you really think that I'm that drunk, you haven't seen me drunk yet."**

 **It was a busy day as per usual on Planet Manhattan. Transports, freighters, police patrols, and Bounty Hunters alike all were piling into the main bar. Two Liberty Policemen were sitting at a booth with what looked like a large bottle of Scotch and talking about something heatedly. A woman sat at the edge of the room on a raised stool watching the projector display some sort of Niobium jewelry. A couple were sitting at the bar sharing a bottle of wine and the bartender was polishing up some glasses. He knew that on a Friday night, people were going to get irritated if they couldn't get their alcohol to top off their week, that's why this bartender was known as the best in Liberty. He always kept his liquor stocked, glasses clean, and his social skills up to par. When you were a bartender in Liberty, you saw people of all sorts of backgrounds so either you learned who came in when, or you were screwed as an employee. He had now set down his glass and started to wipe down the bar, considering the corner booth to see if the gang of four seated there needed to be topped off. He recognized three of them instantly, for they were here every night and always went to that same booth. The table there was piled with several different bottles of booze and shot glasses kept rising and falling with their coordinated drinks. They came in so often in fact that he could pick the three off by name.**

 **To the outside left corner of the booth sat a tall, skinny man with dark brown hair and rimless glasses ("Who the heck still wears those things?" The bartender always wondered to himself). He sported a lab coat of some kind and his defining characteristic to the bartender was that he was always picking at his hands. His name was Clayton Haug and what he did for a living was unknown to most people. The bartender did know however, that he was a part of Willard Research Station over in the California System and had been working there since he graduated Manhattan U.**

 **Next to him sat a shorter man with lighter brown hair wearing a jumpsuit that looked like it belonged to Liberty's very own Deep Space Engineering company, one of the "Big Three" Liberty companies. He was kind of hesitant on most topics that the group would discuss and never said even when he got a chance to speak. Still, it looked like he got along very well with the group and enjoyed the booze. Keegan Sabol was an escort pilot for the DSE and mainly was seen defending loads of goods and mechanical parts from being stolen off transports by pirates. His fellow escort wingman sat on the outer right side of the booth. A larger man sporting a similar jumpsuit to that of Keegan's, Logan Johnson was a man who had a big heart and a good mind; it was just in an unorganized mess. His jumpsuit gave him a slimming appearance, though it was obvious that anything smaller wouldn't be able to fit him. Even though he was quiet tonight, he was known around the neighborhood as a guy who said what came to his mind and didn't care how loud he was when he was saying it. Keegan and Clayton eventually decided that he was an okay guy even though he said things that probably wouldn't be okay with many others.**

 **The bartender then focused his eyes on the fourth man sitting between Keegan and Logan on the middle right of the booth. He was a Navy pilot that much was certain as he sported the blue and gold uniform of a navy officer. He also had dark brown hair that was slicked down so that it appeared slightly curly over the top of his forehead. It was an odd haircut for someone in the Navy the bartender thought, but it was none of his concern. He currently had his hand on a shot glass and proceeded to down it, making it his third shot of the night, already though, the bartender could see that being in the Navy meant that he hadn't had a drink in a while as his speech was already slurring. "Yak see Clayton, what' yam need to do is get over the brains, and star' talk' to some chicks." It seemed like there were 10 s' in chicks as the last letter was pronounced for far too long. "Yeah okay Pohlman, whatever you say." Clayton hated talking to a drunken friend, but a drunken Damian Pohlman was the worst. Damian was the mildest of the group by far when he was sober, but when he got smashed, he was very loud and obnoxious. Rolling his eyes, Clayton turned to Keegan "So how was the week for you guys? I heard DSE got a huge shipment of machinery sent out."**

 **Keegan, who had been looking down at his glass in deep thought, snapped back to reality with a sudden jolt, "Yeah, our CEO just signed a deal with Ageira Tech. We've been shipping parts over to a site in the Galileo system. It has something to do with Ageira wanting to build jump Gates that lead to Liberty space. They were going to build them at the bends so that convoys entering Liberty are less likely to be attacked by Rogues and Lane Hackers." Damian gave another lurch and took his fourth shot, despite Logan's advisory warnings to resist. "Wait, all the bends? That would violate the Border World Treaty. Each nation is supposed to split the Border World boundaries evenly, so Liberty jump Gates past the Liberty half would- "Piss off an already angry Kusari government? Yeah, I know, and I don't know what you want me to do about it. Logan and I are just following orders, though I'm half tempted to talk to Blackburn about it." Thomas Blackburn was the current CEO of the DSE as well Keegan and Logan's main authority on nearly all their assignments. Although he wasn't the man who had the idea of building the gates, he still controlled the manufacturing side of things. "Maybe I can convince him to stop supplying parts to Ageira. If nothing else maybe they can slow down the production of the parts until an agreement between the nations can be settled." Keegan was looking genuinely worried. The colonies hadn't been this close to a war since before the four of them were born. Liberty and Kusari were at ends with each other ever since Kusari had weapons plans leaked by a former Naval Forces Officer that turned Blood Dragon (AK, the rebel group dedicated to the overthrow of the Kusari government). The plans were given to Liberty about 6 years ago and they consisted of a new prototype of battleship that had the power and armor to take on 5 Liberty Dreadnought battleships with ease. Ever since the leak, Liberty and Kusari have been locked in an arms race with neither side having a clear advantage. "If anything, Clayton, the jump Gates will draw the line and cause war between us and them… I'm just an escort pilot; I have no clue about military piloting and strategy. What the hell will I be able to do if things get really heated?" Clayton just sat there in silence, picking his fingers like he usually did when he was nervous or deep in thought (he was doing the latter in this case). For he, being just a scientist on a classified Liberty Station, had no idea what he would do either if a war came about. "Yeah man, I'm not sure. It's almost like we're being cocky about our current military situation and not really caring about the people that we would put at risk by allowing ourselves to get into a colony-wide conflict. Could we win? I think we have just as good of a chance as Kusari does. The problem is though, at what cost would it invoke?" Just as he spoke the last word, Damian started whooping and hollering again. "'Eye Clayton, I goth a nice girl for you o'er here," He slurred as he pointed to Logan who, in turn, gave a single-raised eyebrow. "Okay Dame, I think you've had enough to drink. Hey Tex, bring the bill over here." He proceeded then to whisper, "I'll take it guys, you and Logan go ahead and head home, I'll take Damian back myself and leave his ship here, so he can pick it up in the morning." Keegan was about to object but then remembered who would be waiting for Damian and thought it would be good if Clayton did talk to her. "Whatever you say man, just know that it wasn't our fault that…" "Nobody's going to blame you dude, I got this. It's not the first time that I've had to take Damian home to her. Courtney will have to deal with it," Clayton interrupted.**

 **Courtney Holland was Damian's fiancée; they had been together for as long as Clayton could remember. He wanted to take Damian to her himself because he figured he would be the one she would least likely lash out against. The three of them had alternated rides to Manhattan University over their first summer, compared to the other two, she knew him better. Whether that was a good thing, or a bad thing though depended on what the he and Damian were doing. She hated it when Damian got shit-faced and as it stood, he couldn't get up out of the booth even with Logan trying to hold him up. Clayton looked at Keegan, who just shook his head and walked out of the bar. "Alright Logan, grab his left side… there we go… I got his right… now lift!" With an effort that wasn't helped by Damian (he was dragging his feet and almost seemed to want to fall), they were able to hoist him up to a stable position. At this point, they were the only three people left in the bar other than Ted, who seemed to be waiting on them as he held the key to the main door. "Alright Clayton, now that we got Damian, where's your ship?"**


	3. Chapter 2: Don't You Want More?

**If Clayton had to describe his ship in a word, it would have to be ugly. Two words? Ugly and awkward. Aesthetically speaking, it looked like a giant asymmetrical piece of junk. Its performance in space wasn't much better as the freighter had 3x the turret spots as gun/missile mounts and had the equivalent turning momentum as a stone. What was worse in Clayton's mind was the misleading name: The "Rhino" is a Liberty freighter that is designed specifically as a small cargo carrying spacecraft and was about as handy as a piece of scrap metal in combat. It was a large, bulky, irregularly-shaped ship that did nothing to resemble the large, protective creature that once inhabited mankind's first home on Earth. In fact, the only reason why Clayton even bothered to use the ship was because it was "gifted" to him by the LSF for his job at Willard. He appreciated any ship of his own at the time as he was only able to get to the station in California by way of transport ship (and man was it a hassle to find a transport that wanted to go to the trade lane less base that was always attacked by Liberty Rogues) but now it was getting annoying. Not only was the Rhino worthless in combat and ugly as sin itself, it was also embarrassing for anyone to catch him flying considering that he wasn't a part of Cryer Pharmaceuticals or Ageira. The word around Liberty regarding the Rhino was quite simple: unless you were dirt poor, a terrible trader, or wanted to die out in combat, the Rhino was the worst choice bar none for a ship.**

 **"Man, for being in the Navy, Damian could stand to lose a few- HAHAHAHA, Clayton what the HELL is that pile of junk on the Launch Pad?" Logan had proceeded to let out a hearty chuckle as he nearly dropped Damian onto the hard surface. Clayton hadn't told anyone what kind of ship he was flying for this very reason; he knew it would be hard for his friends to take him seriously when they were flying around so long as he was in this thing. "Now... I thought... that being a nerd... would mean that... you were a bad pilot but... BWAHAHAHA!" He had to take breaks between his sentence to catch his breath from his own laughing, but now he was practically rolling on the floor at the sight of the blemish on the pad waiting to be launched. After about 5 minutes of chuckling and rolling in what Clayton thought was a highly exaggerated manner, Logan finally got up and helped Clayton with getting Damian onto the ship. "Yah know if you needed money for a ship, I could've given you my old Startracker. It's not much but anything is much better than THIS." He waved his arms in a wide circle as he was walking up the ramp of the ship. "It's a free ship that was given to me by my bosses," Clayton said defensively. "If I needed an actual ship, don't you think that I would've gotten one by now?" "'Ou know Clayt'n, I got'a nice shi' fo' you sittin' back at mah old home," Damian said cackling in his very drunken state. "May'e we should *hic* chip in 500 credits fo' a new Starflier." With that, they both roared and fell to the floor of the ship rolling around holding their abdomens. "Are you guys done yet? Damian, you idiot. Come on get up, I got to get you home or we're both screwed. Logan, I'll see you around, good luck getting back to your apartment." "Sure man, see you around," Logan still had a big goofy grin on his face, obviously still satisfied with the roasting of his beloved friend. With that, Logan left the ship, Clayton got Damian strapped into the passenger seat of his freighter, and then himself, checked his pre-launch sequences, and finally took off from Planet Manhattan.**

 **"Hey, Clayton can I talk to you for a second?" Damian was suddenly calm, alert, and comprehendible in his speech. "I'm not talking to you dude, your impossible to talk to when you're drunk." "I wasn't drunk; I was only acting like it to spark some entertainment out of you guys. You and Keegan were pretty tense, so I thought I would cause a much-needed distraction." "The only thing you ended up doing was interrupt an important conversation that we were having." Clayton was clearly irritated now as his voice was becoming more and more hostile. "And what did said conversation entail? I heard bits of it involving Kusari and the DSE Firm." Damian didn't say this in an irritated tone. In fact, it seemed to be more curious than anything else. Despite the approach though, Clayton sat in silence. He hated doing this to his friends, but he thought that it was best for the conversation between him and Keegan to stay between them. Although Damian was in the Liberty Navy, he was still barely a step above a grunt and spent most of his time patrolling small areas around New York. Telling him about a potential war, Clayton thought, would only make him worry about something that none of them had control over. "Whatever dude, I actually wanted to talk to you about other things so it's fine." Damian said as he looked at the trade lane ring.**

 **They had just approached the one that led to Fort Busch and proceeded to dock, starting their high-speed journey to the nearby Liberty Police base. "So, I got a promotion." Damian said suddenly as they came across the halfway mark of the trade lane. "Oh yeah? That's awesome man!" Clayton tried to sound enthusiastic for his friend, but truth be told, he was still ticked at the fact that Damian made him and Logan carry him around the entire time they were trying to get off of Manhattan. "Yeah, so now I'll be patrolling Detroit, protecting it from Xenos and whatnot." Damian sounded like he was trying to stay optimistic himself, which was odd when it was his own promotion that he was talking about. Suddenly, Damian lashed out and punched the dash. "Whoa dude, what the hell is wrong with you?" Clayton shouted. The sudden strike made him nearly jump out of the seat that he was buckled into. "You just said that you got promoted. Promotion is usually a great thing, so what's bugging you?" Damian took a deep breath, trying to get his usual cool, mild attitude back. "I have never seen you lash out like that dude, you need to tell me what's bugging you." At this point, the worry in his voice was evident as Clayton exited the trade lane and set a course to the one that would lead to the** ** _Missouri._** **For a moment, neither one of them spoke. As Clayton proceeded to dock with the next Lane however, Damian took a deep breath, "Why are we here Clayton?" "You mean like, "mankind in Sirius or..." "No, I mean why are the four of us still here in Liberty? Don't you ever wonder if there is more out there for us?" To be quite fair, Clayton had actually never thought much about changing anything up with his life. He had a steady job, a calm and safe location in which to live, and probably the biggest factor: he was not an adventurous person in general. He loved boring, safe, and predictable. It made things so easy for a guy who, as most people seem to know, has only brains to back him up in any situation. Has he fought in an actual fighter craft before? Sure. Pretty much everyone in Liberty has gotten into a situation at some point or another that involved defending themselves but that didn't mean that he preferred it.**

 **"I'm sick of the same old boring patrols, the predictability, the freaking dead-end life I'm leading. I'm surprised you're not showing me any support, what with the life you've got and all." "Now what's that supposed to mean?" Clayton was surprised that Damian was talking anything about** ** _his_** **life considering that they seemed to have such different lives on the surface. "I mean how can you stand being so boring all the time? All you do is hole yourself up in your little lab only to come out of hiding every so often to hang out with us. I mean, how the hell do you stand it?" "Why are you so bitter all of a sudden?" Clayton was getting really annoyed with Damian's negative tone. "You're probably doing the best of all of us. Out there as a part of the Liberty Navy, seeing the world, making a difference for the betterment of mankind." "See, all you're doing is rehashing propaganda. Those posters are only there for one reason: lie and promote the navy as something that it isn't to persuade other blind-minded kids to suit up. Why am I so bitter? Well several reasons as a matter of fact: I've been in the Navy for 6 years now and the only thing I've ever done is patrol already well guarded stations around here in New York. Explore the world? Well what people don't tell you is that the farthest any Navy pilot gets is the Liberty side of the Border worlds. Even then, the requirements to even sniff any hope of getting that far are met by only the best pilots in the force. Salary? Well the excuse is that there's a 'reduction in the military budget' and that 'the experience and duty of serving is so good that it's a part of the salary' yadda yadda yadda... I'm done dude, I want to get out of here. Get away from this repeating hellhole of a place where the only thing that is ever a halfway decent experience is the ever so often get together with you guys. I want to explore the Omicrons, go experience the mining stations in the Omegas, see the remains of the Eighty Year's War, or maybe the wreckage of Freeport 7 in the Sigmas. I want to make friends with Rheinlanders, Bretonians, and even Kusari folk. I want to live a life that will not only be exhilarating for myself, but for my future family as well. I want...well...I want to live!" With that, the long trade lane ride to the Battleship Missouri finally ended.**

 **"Incoming ships, this is the Battleship Missouri, please identify yourselves." "Missouri, this is LSF Scientist Clayton Haug. Bringing home, a friend from a wild night out." There was a little bit of hesitation as the ship operator was trying to decide whether or not to ask what the two were doing out at this time. After what seemed like an eternity, finally the comm line came back to life. "Understood, proceed to the docking bay." With a slow acceleration, Clayton guided his ship into the docking bay of the battleship, finding a nice little zone that fit perfectly for a landing. "Well Dirk (that was Clayton's name from High School), thanks for the ride back. I'll hitch a ride from one of my Navy buddies to retrieve my ship from Manhattan so no worry there okay?" "Yeah sure..." Clayton said, though his head was swimming. He was still stuck on the last words that Damian had said in his outburst of question.** ** _He wants to live? He's sick of the routine? Holed up in a lab with no life? Who does he think he is? Well, maybe he's got a point with what I do with my life, but calling me a no life? 'I want to live...' Does that mean that... nah he wouldn't ditch._** **That much he knew for certain. Damian was no ditcher, maybe he was just having a bad week and was talking about his future.** ** _Ah well, I can't worry about that right now, got a bigger problem coming up soon._**


	4. Chapter 3: Blackburned

**Planet Pittsburgh, New York System, Liberty Space**

 **1 week later**

 **If there was such thing as an official list of unsightly planets, Liberty's best offer to the table would have to be thrown here. At the end of the far trade lane from Fort Bush sat a rather bizarre looking planet. Brown rock, smoke trailing out of steel smokestacks, and bright yellowish-green fire mixed with a landscape that consisted of canyons, fissures, and mining machinery, and one might think that it is an industrial version of hell. Yet that description is only half right. Behind the horrid landscape and few white wispy clouds, evidence of an atmosphere on an otherwise seemingly uninhabitable planet, the beauty of industry was the heart of Pittsburgh's human interaction. Home of the DSE firm, Pittsburgh is the sole source of rare minerals as well as construction machinery used to build Liberty's trade lane rings, jump gates, and main stations.**

 **At the mining operation pad itself stood a bar that was carved into a rock formation (a perk of having an undesirable environment was the fact that the drinks were extremely cheap in price by comparison). It had a similar layout to any typical station bar: a large window that opened viewing of the otherwise lack-luster biome that covered Pittsburgh, low sitting tables with chairs, and oddly enough, no actual bar of its own. Instead, the bar was a self-serve tap, part of the fact that it was so cheap to buy drinks. There was a light crowd in the club today (most were out working on the mines); three men were leaning on the rail in front of the large window talking about a new hotspot that had opened near the southern pole. "I heard that there was about 2 trillion tons of Niobium down there. Hope we get tasked to something like that..."**

 **At the far back corner of the club, Keegan and Logan were sitting at a table, both men empty handed as they were only an hour out from being sent with a transport over to the Colorado System. Rather than talk about the deal however, Keegan had other intentions and was leading the conversation. "I think I'm going to do it Logan. I must make sure that Blackburn knows that this is something that can cause a colony war. I'm going to march right into his office and lay the law down on him." Although he was trying to be serious, he couldn't hide the trace of doubt in his voice. Logan just sat back, stroking his beard while thinking about other possibilities. For a while, the two just sat there in silence. A repair ship slowly floated past the window drawing the attention of Logan for just a small while. Finally, after what seemed like a 5-minute pause, Logan spoke up. "You know, I can always approach him with you. There might be a better chance that he will listen if there's more than one person approaching him about the same situation." Keegan just shook his head, "No. I'm not letting you do that Logan. All that will do is throw up the risk of both of us getting in trouble. It could lead to a dock in pay, a lay-off, or worse he could fire the both of us." "Now just wait and think about this for a sec-" "No, I'm going alone and that's final. You need this job much more than I do now anyway." That much was true, the reason why Logan was making the comments to Clayton earlier about giving him financial help was because he always seemed to be down on his luck. "I'm going to head to his office. Don't worry about me man, it won't take longer than 10 minutes tops." Logan shifted uncomfortably in his seat obviously showing that he still had his doubts. "Hey, if you say so. I'll be out on the launch pad getting the ol' ship setup. Don't take too long yeah?" "10 minutes I swear." Keegan was really debating with himself now. "Do you pinky swear?" Logan said in what he thought must of thought was a high-pitch trying-to-act-cute voice. Keegan just shook his head with a grin and walked away.**

 **When Keegan walked to the small two-story office building that housed his higher ups, he was a bit taken aback at the style of it. It wasn't made of any kind of metal or reflective material like the other 98% of buildings in the colonies. Rather, it was a large square concrete block structure that looked as if it were a giant cinderblock. Other than a small circular glass window that sat at the top middle of the building, the structure was completely windowless. With hesitance mounting ever higher as he stepped closer to the large square door, he realized why there was nobody else around.** ** _Good Lord, this place is like an old prison that we learned about in school. The kind that our ancestors had on Earth. It really was a neat strategy, this makes anyone who dares challenge authority step away for a bit. Then they would either go back only half as confident or forget about the matter they were going to complain about entirely._** **Keegan had to admit, it was a genius strategy, but it seemed a little bit extreme for an engineering firm.** ** _What kind of complaints are they wanting to avoid from the employees? I know that I haven't worked here for very long, but there's something that Blackburn isn't telling his employees._** **He was thinking this to himself when he realized that he had been standing at the door for about 2 minutes now.** ** _Well, better let myself in._**

 **If the outside of the complex was out of touch with the rest of Liberty architecture, then the inside was in an entire class of its own. Upon walking in, Keegan noticed a fireplace in the far center wall. What was even weirder than that though was the design of the room itself. He noticed a dark, cylindrical, smoothed out texture along the walls of the room. It was unlike anything Keegan had ever seen before. The floor was of the same texture and there were portraits of vast desert lining the walls. A half-filled bookshelf sat along the end of the left wall just behind what looked like a secretary's desk. The sign that sat on it indicated that she was done for the day. "Hello? Who goes there?" Keegan recognized the cool voice as his CEO's. Thomas Blackburn was a tall, slim man in his early forties with short black hair and a mustache of the same color. Large framed glasses magnified his eyes to the size of small balloons and gave him a sort of baby appearance behind the facial features of a typical scientist. He looked particularly dumbfounded at the fact that anyone was in his office at this hour. "Show yourselves before I call the Liberty Police." His voice boomed from a partially opened door leading to what must have been to his office. The door was on the far-right wall and creaked as Keegan opened it wider to get through into the small room. "Who are you and what are you doing here. Well lemme see, judging by the jumpsuit, you're obviously one of my employees and judging by your unfamiliar face, I'd say that we had never met before unless I am mistaken and I usually never am." He rattled off the last sentence so fast that it took Keegan an extra few seconds to comprehend what he was saying. "Umm... sir my name I Keegan Sabol and I'm... an escort pilot." He had forgotten any plan on what he was going to say and was currently looking like a giant nervous breakdown of a man. "Okay then youngster, aren't you a little bit short to be an escort pilot? You seem to be a little bit young to be flying a ship at all really." Keegan just bit his lip. He hated being called short. Back in the day before he and Clayton got along, Clayton would always make fun of him. Calling him midget, Kusari man, and perhaps the one that he hated the most, runt. "Sir I assure you, I'm 25 years old, and I would appreciate that you would refer to the height disadvantage in a different way if at all. Oh, is that your family?" Keegan nodded his head towards a small picture frame that sat on the front right corner of the desk. Three people posed for the photo, one Keegan immediately recognized his boss. Just in front of him sat a young beautiful woman with long black hair and a gorgeous smile. In her arms she held a baby boy that Keegan approximated at around 1-2 years old. "Why yes, that's my wife Kimberly and my son Sanford. I never really see them anymore because work. The two of them... they're my everything." His eyes were glimmering with what looked like a combination of pride and tears. The glimmering faded as quick as it appeared however, and Blackburn was back in his demanding state. He proceeded to raise an eyebrow and leaned back in his chair, putting his feet on the desk. "Now if you would spit out what you're wanting to talk to me about. We can BOTH move on with our lives instead of being stuck here listening to drabble." Keegan was already getting miffed at this guy, but he thought he should voice his opinions anyway.**

 **Keegan took a seat in the chair that sat opposite of the desk. Shifting around to try and get comfortable, he finally just settled to sitting upright in the chair. "Well, what do you have to say?" "Sir, I've been thinking... about the recent project that we agreed to help Ageira with... about the jump gates in the Galileo System..." At the mention of Ageira, Blackburn creased his eyebrows into a "not this again" expression. "What about it pilot?" Keegan was still trying to fabricate sentences out of thin air. "Well... I was wondering if we could... I don't know... stop this project from being finished. Or better yet, stop it before it gets started." Before he could continue, Blackburn stuck up his hand. "I'm just going to stop you right there Mr. Sabol, is it? Our company and more important, our colony, was built on the idea that expansion and profit could help us improve our lives. Ageira has the idea to expand our borders beyond what we thought was originally possible. Imagine it now. Goods being brought in from Kusari, the Sigmas, the Taus, and even the Northern Omicrons now have access to a shorter drop off point to sell their goods in Liberty. With fewer systems to have to bypass, foreign goods will become cheaper, this allows Liberty to sell goods and buy goods at an ever-increasing profit margin as well as ensuring that a higher percentage of goods gets to our colony. The more goods flowing in will make pirates weaker because their access to useful goods will be limited even more so than before. The extra goods also provide Liberty with more efficient solutions and nearly zero profit loss. All because of a few jump gates placed in a neutral system. It will give us a leg-up on all of the other colonies and make Liberty the supreme powerhouse of Sirius." He had seemed so certain in his words at first but his argument, at least in Keegan's mind, seemed to have fizzled out in its repetitiveness. "Umm... sir if I may. Let me make the case on why we shouldn't build these jump gates." "No offense kid, but there isn't an argument on why these shouldn't be built." "Except for the fact that Kusari has a fucking high-tech weapon that beats anything that we have! Except that we are in a cold war where tension is so high you could shoot through it! Except for the fact that the colonies are at the brink of war because of Ageira and DSE's greed!" Blackburn leaned forward in his chair. If looks could do anything, Keegan would have turned into ice right in front of the desk. "I feel that you are uneducated and furthermore unauthorized to make any sort of opinion that makes any sort of argument relevant to the situation. I advise you to watch your tongue."** ** _Well if I've come this far, there's no point in backing down now_** **Keegan thought. "Admit it sir, you have yet to think about what the possible consequences of your actions are and as a result we could all die! This is not your decision to make"-"DON'T tell me how to run my operations Sabol. This is MY firm and it is MY head if things go down the wrong path." "NO IT ISN'T JUST YOUR HEAD BLACKBURN." Keegan was now in a full-blown shouting match with his superior. "THE LIVES OF ALL PEOPLE IN LIBERTY DEPEND ON THIS DEAL. IF YOU DON'T CANCEL THIS, IT WILL LEAD TO WAR AND MILLIONS WILL SUFFER. EVEN YOUR FAMILY WILL BE IN DANGER." Keegan was panting. It had been a long time since he had ever exploded on anyone like that and if he wanted to be quite honest, it felt great. Blackburn however was not amused in the tiniest way. "Get out." His voice almost cracked as he gave the order. "Excuse me sir?" "You heard me you fucking runt. GET OUT OF MY OFFICE BEFORE I HAVE TO REMOVE YOU PERSONALLY!" His face was the color of the dark red flames of the retro fireplace outside the hall. "IF YOU EVER THINK ABOUT PILOTING FOR THE DSE AGAIN, I WILL TAKE YOU OUT PERSONALLY DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?" Keegan got out of his chair and walked away without answering. "YOU WILL BE DEAD YOU HEAR ME? DEAD TO THE LIBERTY CORPORATIONS!" Blackburn's voice rang throughout the small building and Keegan could still hear his voice even after he shut the door.**

 **"Well how'd it go?" Logan was waiting outside on the launch pad by their ships. Both were classified as Hawks. Which came from the same family as all the other civilian ships in Sirius. It had an amber tinted glass cockpit with a brown frame and a long shape that arched to look like an outstretched bird, hence the name. "Well it went about as well as expected. He told me why they weren't going to stop the project, I told him that he done fucked up basically, then he proceeded to fire me and promised to put a bad name in for me to any Liberty company that I apply to. So yeah like I said, just about what I expected." Logan's eyes just got larger and larger as Keegan went further through his summary finally looking like they were going to pop out of his head. "Well shit dude, that's..." "Awesome I know." Keegan mocked sarcastically. "Hey, have you been talking to Clayton recently? I need someone to room with now that I have no source of income. Was going to see if he knew of anyone who could take me in until I got back on my feet." "Honestly, I haven't heard a word from him, but I mean shoot man I can take you in." Logan offered sincerely. Keegan however shook his head and pushed Logan's outstretched hand away. "Really don't think that's a good idea. You can barely take care of yourself Logan." "But..." Logan started to insist, "It's alright, I'll start looking for cheap spots on Manhattan. Maybe I can find some jobs in the meantime. Try to get in contact with Clayton for me though would yah? Who knows maybe he can be your new escort partner on cargo runs." They both started to laugh. "Ah shit that's a thought...that's a thought...Well I mean if you really say you're going to be okay, I'll see you around. I got me a cargo run to carry out." Logan then turned his head around to look to his left. "Hey Withers, I need a wingman for a quick run to Norfolk, want to fly with me?" A man who was working on a small repair bot suddenly turned, "Yeah sure, I could use the extra cash." "Alright then." Logan gave one last look at Keegan, who was walking back into the bar, before hopping into his ship and taking off for the Pittsburgh docking ring exit.**


	5. Chapter 4: Another Week in Hell

**Damian wished that he could just be discharged from his Naval duty already.**

 **He was on yet another patrol in another seemingly well secured area that is West Point Military Academy. The Academy, which is located one trade lane away from Manhattan, was the training grounds for all the new recruits. As a result, Navy ships littered the perimeter of the Large 8-port station. The main ship that was used to defend Liberty through the effective Liberty Navy was dubbed the "Defender". It was the pinnacle of Liberty Technology. A slate gray ship with a blue cockpit, two wings stretched out from the long body in a diagonally downward sloping way that provided the perfect balance of maneuverability and stability. It also had the most gun mounts of any ship in Liberty providing the most firepower of any ship in the colony. As such, it was the staple of any Liberty Navy or LSF pilot. Yet, despite the power emanating from the ship, there were at least 6 other patrols around the station. Once again, it seemed that the patrol that his officer sent him on was just another waste of time. Just out of curiosity, Damian decided to count how many ships were patrolling the academy. " Thirteen...Fourteen...Sixteen...Nineteen. Nineteen other pilots in this place." His wing mates, two pilots by the names of David Sibley and Alice Hayne, both groaned heavily over the communication channel. "I wonder if we'll ever get moved out of this boring-patrol-thing," Dave thought out loud. "Pick up your head Sibley, I'm sure that with all the pilots that get shot down out in the real world, we're bound to get into some real action." Damian shifted in his seat a little bit at that thought. "Umm Alice, that's a little bit much isn't it?" "But it's true! Every single day there are pilots getting taken down by those petty criminal organizations. Eventually you would think that they would have to start scraping the barrel to make up for the loss in numbers." "Look, Pohlman's not saying that it's not true, he's just trying to say that it's not really a moral thing to say." "Whatever Dave, kiss up to the squad leader as you always do. Maybe one day even you will be able to lead your own wing of petty fighter pilots around an already maximum-security academy for the Liberty Navy."**

 **With that set choice of words, Damian's wingmen exploded into a verbal repercussion that made Damian jump. While the two were bantering back and forth at each other, Damian received a transmission from West Point.**

 **"Hey Pohlman, it's Stevens at West Point. I got a couple of suspicious fighters entering the area, think you guys can see what they're doing passing by here?"** ** _Good ol' Stevens_** **Damian thought to himself. There was a good guy to be around. The party animal of the Navy they called him, Stevens alternated shifts as the docking manager between West Point and the Missouri. An underappreciated job, but a needed one nonetheless.**

 **"Yeah, sure thing Stevens. I'll settle the other two down and take care of it." "Better hurry, it doesn't look like they want to stay for too long. Just try not to provoke them, I mean I know you guys won't, but Alice can be kind of... persuasive." "Acknowledged. Pohlman out." Once he re-entered his patrol channel, he was immediately thrown back into a scream off between his two wingmen. "I NEVER SAID THAT YOU WERE WRONG ABOUT TWO YEARS AGO, I'M JUST SAYING-" David was shouting now but was shut down quickly, "DON'T INTERRUPT ME YOU ASSHOLE, I WAS JUST GETTING TO-" "BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP." The two immediately went silent. It was not often that Damian ever exploded and anyone who knew him also knew that he was not to be trifled with when he was pissed. "Alright then Stevens," Damian said once his temperament settled, "where are these suspicious ships?"**

 **"We got three ships that just came out of the trade lane from the Missouri trade lane. Looks like a trio of Bounty Hunters." The three flew over to the approaching Bounty Hunter Guild ships, Dave immediately started to scan their cargo bays while Damian tried to engage them in conversation. "Attention incoming ships, this is Corporal Damian Pohlman of the Liberty Navy. Please identify yourselves." "Roger that Corporal, this is Bounty Hunter Patrol Cobra 7, sending the rest of the Identification data to you now. "Damian checked out the records that the patrol leader sent over. As he sorted through the files, he found that they had a very good record in terms of on the job performance. Everything seemed to check out just fine to him, but he wanted to check out one more factor. "10-4, you guys are showing up in the records. So, tell me, what are you guys doing traveling out to California?" It took them a rather long time Damian thought, to respond to a simple question like the one that was presented to him. "We're a cleaner wing from Sigma 13 system, our current assignment requires us to head to the California system. Client wants the details to remain quiet and their identity, anonymous." Damian went silent for a second, trying to see if they were telling the truth. "Roger that, though I got to say, those are some mighty fine ships you boys are flying there. Kind of... adventurous for Liberty space wouldn't you agree?" The ships were in fact very heavy fighters. Too armored to not be sold by a distant dealer outside of Liberty. Damian noticed immediately that they were Bounty Hunter Hammerheads. "Look man, we're just trying to get to California and it would be much easier if you guys could just move aside." The irritation clearly present in the tone of the head Bounty Hunter. "Not sure that we really want to move along just yet. After all, it is stated by Liberty Law that any ship being held up by Liberty officials must wait until the said officials are done with their search and or questioning." David suddenly piped. Being fresh out of the academy, Sibley had most of the laws of Liberty still fresh in his head. The other three ships though, revved up their engines and started flying towards the trade lane anyway. "Pretty good rook, now let me let you in on a little secret: Bounty Hunters are above the local laws because they are a part of the intercolonial criminal justice system. So technically speaking, we only must give out the details of our ID and destination. All other details and mission critical information can be retained by said Bounty Hunter Guild pilots regardless of the current situation that is occurring within the confines of whatever colon we are flying in. So, if you wonderful people would excuse us, we are late for our meeting with our client." With that last bit, the three very heavy fighters took off towards the California Jump gate through the trade lane, leaving Damian, Dave, and Alice idling stupidly in their ships.**

 **"Well, that was something huh guys?" Alice said with a subject-changing upbeat attitude. "What do you both say we head down to Ithaca, I heard that the restoration process is about complete and that they will be able to allow people to dock as soon as 3 days from now." "Yeah sure why not. Nobody will know that we're gone anyway." Damian replied. When they got through the trade lane, the three were immediately taken away. Ithaca Research Station was established long before any of them were born. It was an attempt to-along with the Old station known as Benford- attempt to find a way for Liberty to fuel itself. Located in the Badlands through the trade lane to the south side of West Point, the station was not only a target for power hungry criminals, but also experienced little to no maintenance since its opening. After the Gas Mining Guild provided the fuel solutions to nearly every system in Sirius, Ithaca was abandoned and as a result, became rundown and practically unusable. Recently though, President Harrison deemed the old station a colony treasure and demanded that funds be sent towards a restoration process by Ageira. Almost 2 years later and Damian would have to say that the restorers earned their pay.**

 **The place looked nothing like its old structure, one might say that it was designed to look more like a Freeport than anything else. It was a Large Space Station consisting of 4 docking ports on two separate long arms connecting to a vertical arm with a large depot at the bottom of it. Two Biodomes reached out in opposite directions from the middle of the two long sideways arms. In all reality, it looked almost exactly like Freeport 1.**

 **"Wow, what an overhaul. They going to make this a free station?" Although they couldn't see it, Damian's eyes were huge. It was nothing at all like what he expected. "Hell no, in the middle of Liberty? As if we're not already in hell and high water. No Jacobi wants this place reserved as more of a museum of history. She wants it to be a place where young people can learn about the nomadic invasion and the near fall of the colonies." Although she tried to make it sound like a stupid thing to ask, she was also stunned at the size of the new station. For a few minutes they just killed their engines and gazed at the new place being constructed and finished up before them. Construction freighters were positioned distinctly around the area of the station while escort pilots and a Navy patrol were doing sweeps around the edge of the visible area. Although the place had yet to report an attack, the proximity of a Liberty Rogue hideout kept workers and guards alike on edge, as if they were just waiting for something to go wrong.**

 **"Liberty patrol, this is Ithaca Station. We have you on our scopes and the lack of movement for a prolonged amount of time has us worried. Please identify yourselves immediately." "Ithaca, this is Navy Patrol Gold 7 on a free period patrol. Requesting permission to dock." "Patrol Gold 7 you are cleared to-" *** ** _zap*_** **. "Huh? Ithaca do you read us?" Damian was in the comm channel with Ithaca, but the station suddenly went dark. "Umm guys, my radar is lighting up!" David was practically screaming at the other two. "HOLY SHIT! WE GOT HOSTILES!" As if on cue, at least two dozen ships appeared in a circular formation. Surrounding the outer edge of the pocket and, consequently, the station.**

 **"Alice, protect the station. Keep any ships trying to get near it at bay."**

 **"Roger."**

 **"David, stay close to me and watch my six. We must keep the pirates AWAY from the station. All units, this is Patrol Gold 7, engaging the enemy ships!"**

 **Although he was scared, this was the kind of situation that Damian claimed to have wanted in the first place. Was this a good first fight? No. He would have settled for a single ship now that he thought about it. He was praying for action, but how did he know that his prayer would have been answered with this much force? Nevertheless, he felt an adrenaline rush as he turned on his thrusters and sped towards the station.**

 **It was a seemingly hopeless situation. What Damian thought was two dozen was in fact nearly three dozen ships; all of them making a beeline for the roughly ten ships protecting the station. "Pohlman, we're outnumbered four to one. What the hell do we do?" "Just do what I told you to Alice, that's an order." He then received a transmission from what sounded like the other Navy patrol. "Gold 7, this is Navy Patrol Iota 18, engaging the enemy. Be advised, we have lost access to Ithaca communications. We also have confirmed the disruption of the exiting trade lane ring. Looks like we're all stranded here for the time being hold out while you can." "Roger that Iota, we have lost access as well. I think they used something to sap all the station's comms. Just do everything you can to keep the station together, we're staying til the end." "10-4 good buddy, taking position on the east side of the station we're with you until the end."**

 **"All ships, OPEN FIRE!"**

 **With that the chaos commenced. Damian zipped through a nearby group and picked a ship out and began to pound on its shields with his Vengeance Mk1s. Before he could hit its hull however, three ships flew in behind him and opened fire. It just occurred to him that he had no clue what kind of ships these were. Brown ship hull, red and violet engines, he had never seen anything like these guys. What made matters worse is that they weren't compensating for poor piloting skills. Despite the heavier ships, the unknown hostiles were flying circles around him and the others. After a bit of difficulty, he was able to pull off the fighter he was attacking and proceeded to fly every which way to dodge the incoming fire. Whoever these guys were, he ruled out the possibility of Liberty Rogues. Most of the time the Liberty Rogues were sloppy, piling on ship after ship until enough stray fire and numbers whittled their opposition down. Damian always thought that it was because they were uncoordinated with terrible communication skills. These guys however, were a mere missile short on several occasions in the firefight. "Gold 7, this is Ageira patrol Theta 3, my squads down, I can't-" Static followed the last word. He looked over to his right just in time to see a Starflier spin out of control into the station, exploding into a ball of flame whilst breaking open the hull of the station. "All units, this is Gold leader, I just lost contact with the civilian patrol; only the seven of us remaining." Damian proceeded to kill his engines, turn his ship around and, while flying in the backwards motion, opened on his three pursuers. He managed to take out the first one and did enough to the second to make him fly erratically into his partner. The efficiency with which he took the ships surprised him. Maybe he was that good of a pilot and these guys were no match for him. As he smiled and relished in the moment, a frantic Alice was trying to get his attention. "Pohlman, I hate to interrupt your spectacle, but Dave needs help, bad!" Damian looked to his left and saw that David was indeed in severe trouble; four ships were tailing him, pounding him with heavy fire as a result. "Dave! On your six! Bank hard to your left!" "Aggh! Sir, I can't... keep her steady... laying in on one!" With a few quick flashes of blue light, he drilled into one of the small ships, causing it to spin out of control ending in a ball of fire. "That's right you scum! Aggh shit! Coolant leak!" Damian, having just taken out two of the enemy fighters on his wingman's six, looked ahead and noticed a small, sporadic leak consisting of tiny gold looking spheres coming from Dave's ship. "Dave, stay with me now." "Pohlman! Incoming at 2 o'clock! Half a dozen of them!"**

 **"Gold 7, this is... 18... too much fire... can't hold..." "Iota 18? Iota 18 are you there?" Damian looked to his left and noticed three explosions close to each other. The ships then set their sights on the last three straggling Navy ships. With sudden eagerness, the hostiles powered up their thrusters, positioning themselves for the kill. Damian did a quick guesstimate on how many were left.** ** _"There's got to be 30 ships left. Where do they keep coming from?"_** **As the lop-sided battle commenced, Damian knew it was a lost fight. The hole that was contrived from the explosion was causing a ripple effect, making the station more and more unstable as time passed. His team was outnumbered 1 to 10 and from what he's seen from these pilots so far, it was more like a 1 to 15 ratio.** ** _"_** **Sir, I can't... keep going...my ship is falling apart..." "Dave listen to me I'm going to get you out of-" Before he could finish, Dave's ship exploded in a fiery ball of orange and yellow light. "NOOO! Dave come in! Dave, you son of a gun pickup your comm link! Dammit!" "Pohlman, we have to go! The station..." Damian looked to where she was referring to. The station was starting to give way, the biodomes separating in large explosions first. The docking ports next, the flames poking out of the close docking doors before blowing them off completely. Roughly twenty ships were still closing in on the station, making sure that they did their job. Once the station was reduced to useless debris, the ships turned to face Damian and Alice.**

 **"This is Alpha 2 to all remaining fighter wings, re-position to take out the remaining witnesses." "Alice, what's the status on that trade lane?!" He started to fire upon the approaching ships, but they kept moving in and out of his vision, forcing him to pick anew target repeatedly. Everything happened in slow motion; as the ships inched closer and closer to Damian's firing weapons, Alice screamed, "It's up! Holy shit GO!" It was an all-out sprint to get there. The two kicked on their thrusters and bee-line for the trade lane. "All ships, knock out the trade lane, don't let the targets escape!" "We're almost there! Keep going!" The fire from the ships was taking a toll on both of their own. Damian saw Hayn's ship; missing the right wing with a trail of flames panning out behind it, Damian wondered how the thing was still stable. He couldn't think about it for too much longer though, his own shield had just failed, and he was taking a beating. "1000 meters... 800... 600..." Damian just lost his left wing, Alice took another hit, clearly out of nanobots. "200... HIT IT ALICE!" With a quick dock initiative, the two managed to take off through the trade lane towards West Point, leaving the unknown ships behind them.**

 **Damian was sweating; a mixture of adrenaline, nerves, shock, and probably more than any of the others, confusion. Everything had happened so fast, so unexpected, it seemed so unreal. He was trying so hard to wake himself up, to prove to himself that it was just a dream and that his wingman was okay. "** ** _An attack, in the heart of Liberty, on a near catastrophic scale. What the hell is going on?"_** **He attempted to recount the number of people that had just vanished in a fiery explosion.** ** _"Liberty and Civilian patrol wings, two repair ships, Da..."_** **He caught himself in mid-thought before his wingman's name popped into his head. "** ** _I could have saved him... if I had just stayed closer to his ship... he was only 19, just a kid. Why him? Of all the terrible people in the world, why is it the kid who always dies?"_** **Although he had just heard her yelling as they approached the trade lane a few seconds ago, he just now realized that he wasn't alone; Alice was eerily quiet. The only sounds that even made him aware she was in the trade lane with him were the few muffled sobs that escaped her lips every few rings, carrying over the open communication channel between them. After what seemed like forever, the two finally exited at the end of the trade lane onto West Point. The place was on high alert. Even though they couldn't receive messages from the station, Damian assumed that the sudden loss of contact was enough to put the Academy into a frenzy. Patrols were lining up to get through the trade lane while overlapping messages from individual ships drowned out the alarm signal coming through his console from West Point. "Ithaca's in trouble..." "What happened there..." "I heard rumors that the attackers were some of our own men."**


	6. Chapter 5: An Old Friend

**Damian was still in shock. So much so that he didn't remember Alice departing for Fort Busch, didn't remember docking with West Point, nor did he even remember getting out of his ship and heading to the bar. He had just informed Smith of the attack done by the unknown ships and after a search party, he was then informed that the ships were long gone and what was left of the station was not pretty. Still in shock, Damian headed to the bar where he sat for what felt like hours on end, trying to figure out what the hell just happened. Reflecting on the disaster that had struck the newly built museum, and (more important to him personally) what had happened to his wingman. He could only picture his panicked face-or rather what it had to have been like- at the time his ship spiraled out of control. Then his mind flashed back to a year and a half ago.**

 **It was early morning on what seemed to be a typical day in Manhattan. Damian was on his way to West Point in the early hours of his time zone. He had received a call about an hour before from his best friend and wingman Blake Booth telling him to meet the crew at the station. "I can't give you the details, mainly because I have no clue what's going on either. I would think it has got to be something huge though. The order came in from higher up." Damian, having just woken up from the call, sat on the side of his bed with his comm. link messenger in his ear in a confused and half-asleep state. Rubbing his eyes, he replied, "How high up? You mean Lt. Rogers, right?" "No, I mean Captain Smith. I'm thinking something's gone wrong. I don't think we've ever gotten a message from anyone higher than out Lieutenant regarding simple matters, have you?" "Well," Damian sat there creasing his fingers on his forehead, contemplating on what might be the reason for such an unordinary occurrence. "You think someone got killed on last night's patrols around the Badlands? Maybe someone that we might have known?" "I mean, something might have happened to the patrol, but who the heck would have been on for us to worry about? As far as I'm aware, there were dozens of patrols everywhere last night as there is all the time." Blake had a sort of ridiculing tone in his voice now. If he hadn't known Booth better, Damian would have thought that he was irritated with him. They went back much too far though for him to believe he was upset with him on anything.**

 **Now that he was somewhat thinking, Damian got up, walked towards his closet, and proceeded to start changing into his uniform, leaving Courtney in bed, and Blake without any signal that he even heard him. "Hey, you still there?" "Yeah, just give me a second..." As he pulled on his uniform he grabbed his Navy cap that was sitting by the door, took one last look at the bed, and headed out the door towards the hangar bay. "You still there Booth?" "Yeah, I'm here. So, what do you think about the whole situation? You said something about Rogers being attacked as a possibility?" "Honestly," Damian said admittedly, "I'm not sure what to actually think of it. It is possible though right?" Blake just sighed, "A lot of things are possible. Just like it's possible that we could be getting a promotion today and the Academy couldn't wait to award us during our normal hours." 'I don't know man," Damian pointed out with a grin on his face, "Maybe it's some sort of code red situation and they need the best pilots in the entire Navy to put the assailants in their place." They both started laughing at the thought of this. Sure, they weren't bad pilots, but for anyone to rely on them for backup meant that the Navy was scraping the bottom of the barrel. As he got into his ship, Damian let out a final message over the comm channel. "Alright Blake, I'm about ready to launch. I'll see you at West Point." "Alright man, I'll be here." With that, Damian took his prelaunch checks, making sure that his engines were functioning, weapons were checked, and that his hull was still intact. It was a check that every pilot in the Sector did as far as he knew. Safety precautions that, if they did not check through, would leave a pilot falling through a planet's atmosphere or simply floating through space. Either scenario, Damian decided, was not worth the few second head start.** ** _Alright, everything seems to be in order, time to see what the hell those meatheads at the Academy want._**

 **It was a bustling day as per usual in Manhattan space. Pilots from all around the Sirius Sector flew around the various stations to make the best deals. Transports moored at Trenton, Heavy Lifters headed for Newark, and pilots were leaving and docking with both stations as well as Manhattan. When Damian entered the trade lane to Fort Busch, from there he could head to his station at the Missouri. As he flew through the trade lanes, he started thinking about what he was about to encounter once he was on the station.** ** _Maybe the reason why Smith is calling on us today instead of Rogers is because rogers came down with some sort of sickness. Don't try to overthink it man, it'll be fine either way._** **Before he could think about it anymore, he deactivated the final lane jump sequence and was floating near his home ship. "Hey Pohlman, how's it going? You seem to be a few hours early this morning." He heard Stevens' voice come through his communication channel as he got closer to the station. "Doing just fine thanks. Blake called me up and said that Captain Smith wanted to see us and Alice. Figured if he wanted to see us, I shouldn't keep him waiting." "Yeah, probably wouldn't be a bad idea. Just give me a second to let this patrol out and I'll get you in." "Roger." Damian replied affirmatively. With that, he steered his ship towards the port and headed inside.**

 **Although Pohlman would have thought the hangar would have been full during these early hours, it was closer to the same amount of ships in the dry dock as there would have been at other time, though the empty spots were in fact in different locations.** ** _Not everyone in Liberty runs on Manhattan standard time._** **He thought to himself critically as he walked out of his ship and into the cool area. He looked over and saw a repairman and a service bot doing some welding on a Defender that looked like it belonged to a seasoned (or maybe poor, he wasn't quite sure) pilot given the condition it was in. To the left of that, he saw an assortment of weapons and missile mounts on a large metallic rail.** ** _Must be extras in case wings get taken off._** **If there was one thing for sure that he knew, it was that he would have hated to be a ship mechanic. All the hours inside a hangar –be it planetary or otherwise- would have driven him up a wall. As he passed them and walked to the lift that would take him to the second floor of the ship, he took one last look at his ship, smiled, and thought how fortunate he was to have found the Liberty Navy.**

 **"Ah there he is sir. Hey Damian, over here!" Blake sitting in a chair that sat in front of a rather large desk on the fourth floor of the station. Next to him sat Alice and behind the two of them sat a rather somber looking Captain Smith. Behind him stood an exhausted looking 2** **nd** **Lt. Rodgers, trying his best to pay attention to what was going on around him, but lucky that his captain never turned around to see that he was falling asleep standing up. Ignoring his own will to want to question what happened immediately, Damian took the third chair on the far left right next to Booth. "Has he said anything yet?" Damian asked Booth quietly as Smith turned to look out the window. "Nothing, and he hasn't taken that look out of his eye since we've been here. I think something is terribly wrong." Blake was whispering out of the corner of his mouth, but he wished that he was quieter in doing so. Smith, overhearing the two, focused his eyes on Booth with a sort of glare that would have made the dead uncomfortable. After what seemed like an eternity, he suddenly straightened up, reached in a filing cabinet next to his desk, and threw them each a folder. "Open them," he said with lack of any detectable emotion. The two pilots opened the flaps of the folders simultaneously and saw a hologram pop up of a man with a chiseled face topped by salt and peppered hair. He had two brown eyes that looked on as if he was trying to glare down the camera. Suddenly, a hollow diagonal rectangle plastered itself over the face of the man; the word "Deceased" written on the inside of it. Although he didn't quite understand what it meant, Damian felt as if someone punched him in the gut. He subconsciously knew who the man was and yet, he didn't dare believe what the information that he was being provided said. He used his finger to scroll through the projection and as more information was revealed,**

 _Daryl 'Ducky' Webster, Liberty Navy_  
 _3176 A.D. - 3202 A.D._  
 _Rank: 1_ _st_ _Lieutenant_  
 _Occupation: Pilot_  
 _Unit: Liberty Navy Patrol Gold 6_  
 _Years of Service: 8_  
 _Daryl Webster passed away this morning after he and his squadron were ambushed near the remains of Ithaca station by what was presumed to be a gang of Liberty Rogues. Though no real information regarding the exact motive of the Rogues has been acquired, several witnesses, including pilots of nearby patrols that came to the rescue, say that it seemed like an ordinary hate attack of Rogues towards the pilots in the Red, White, and Blue. "No real motive has been set other than the fact that it was thug vs. Military. Unfortunately, it was the thug side that came across with the slaughtering of one of Liberty's most beloved officers." -Lt. Rodgers, Liberty Navy. "An honorary discharge as well as a 21-blaster salute will follow in the next coming days, it will be made known to the public once the exact time and date is decided." Surviving family members of Webster's include brothers Tyler and Chad..._

 **Damian just blinked and looked up at the exhausted Lieutenant standing behind his Captain.** ** _Well then, that explains why he looks tired. Why does this even concern me though._** **He didn't think of the question as a selfish one. In all honesty, Navy pilots were killed every day, so it was kind of odd that he should have thought this man should have any correlation to how he should feel. Captain Smith seemed to have read his expression because before Damian could respond, he had already begun answering. "This man was the leader of your brothers in Gold 6. He was one of my most trusted men and by far the best pilot that I have ever had the pleasure of leading. He had a personality that rivaled that of..." Damian couldn't focus anymore. As much as he loved higher ranking officers drone on and on about pilots he never knew existed, there was a point in time (about 34 seconds in this case) that he could not bear pay attention anymore. After what seemed like an eternity, he snapped back to reality just in time to get the jist of the situation. "...Since I don't trust anyone else in that squadron to take up the role of leader yet, I set my sights on this squadron. With the new trainee graduates from this year's program being rotated into regular patrols, I thought it would be useful to stick a shiny (what the nickname for the new guys were because of their shiny pins they receive at graduation) in your particular squad in exchange for a promotion to Gold 6's leader for one of you three. I asked Rodgers here what he thought about the situation and he seemed to think it was a great idea." He turned behind him to glance at Rodgers, who gave a tired nod in acknowledgement. "After a few days thinking, I have decided to give Cpl. Booth the option first. Should he choose to decline it, Cpl. Pohlman will take his place. The one that does not take this squadron head will be assigned head of this squadron. Think of it as a promotion to the both of you. What do you say Booth?" Damian looked to his left to see Blake completely frozen. Clearly, they had the same look of unexpectancy of their face. "Sir, you mean to tell me that I can leave this squad to go somewhere else and be the head there?" "That's exactly what I'm saying Booth. Now the choice is yours, but I would preferably like one of you guys to head your brothers and sisters in Gold 6. It's not mandatory, just a personal preference." "Sir," Blake started after a few minutes, "I would love to take the position." "Alright then, Booth you will promoted to 1** **st** **. Lieutenant ASAP Pohlman you will take over as squad leader. However, since your lack of effort in recent patrols, you will remain at Corporal. Booth, come with me, I'll introduce you to your new squadron." Blake practically jumped out of his seat in a salute as Damian remained seated with Alice fuming.** ** _Not good enough effort? How much effort do you need to put into this stupidity, there's no effort even required! It's got to be some sort of lame excuse just to get Boothy boy here some more recognition. Leader of our squad wasn't enough, now he must head the ace squad._**

 **"It's just such BS." They were in the bar on West Point now. He and Alice were sitting at a booth in the back-right corner from the entrance. Damian with his back turned to the door with the bar to his left. "We've been in the same squad doing the same exact tasks since we've been active duty. Yet they still see more in him than in me. What the hell am I doing wrong Alice?" She had been looking around kind of nervously, afraid that he was making a scene by yelling. She took a long swig of her glass of Liberty Ale, set it down, and just stared at him. It was clear that she was not getting into it nor wanted to hear anymore, so Damian just went up to the bar and ordered an ale himself. While he was waiting on his drink, he was approached by the man he just got done listening to. "Sir!" Damian saluted with his hand held near his right eye. "As you were Corporal." Smith, whom Damian never saw outside his office, strode over to him, a young man at his side and slightly behind him. "Since you guys would be short a pilot otherwise, I've made the decision of appointing a rookie to your squadron. Meet David Sibley, fresh out of the academy." "Sir!" The young man looked stern and serious when he saluted, almost as if he had a stick shoved up his rear. "Take it easy man, appreciate it though." A confused look popped up on the new recruit's face.** ** _I had the same problem when I got out of the academy,_** **Damian immediately thought to himself. "Anyway Corporal, I told Sibley here that you would take good care of him and show him around the base. Told him you were the kindest guy on the station." "Sure sir, alright Dave, let me show you how things operate in space..."**


	7. Chapter 6: A Rough Going

**Keegan was sitting in the bar on Planet Pittsburgh. A whirl of thoughts spinning through his head as he enjoyed his bargain-priced Liberty Ale. It was a per usual day on the mining planet. As he sipped, he heard the roar and fade of machinery and ships in the distance. The robotic bartender was busy polishing a glass behind the counter. A man sat on the other side of the room, staring at the monitor and enjoying his Liberty Ale. Aside from being the only alcoholic beverage offered in the entire colony, Keegan still wondered how people could still drink it. He always felt that it was watered down piss. Nevertheless, the man seemed very happy to have a drink beside him as it looked like he had been through either a long day at work, or a long day of drinking... Taking his attention off the man, he looked outside the giant window positioned to see the landing pad. His Hawk, placed on the second main pad, sat idle suspended by the virtual landing gear. It was certainly a powerhouse of a ship for this specific part of Sirius (being the New York system). Why he even went and bought it is something that he keeps asking himself every single day. It wasn't really anything special, four-gun mounts, medium ship size, it was the amount of firepower it had that made in unnecessary. Most criminals around the area didn't even come close to the amount of raw power that the Hawk could hold. He still remembered where he got it from too: Planet Kyushu in the namesake system. It's such an odd thing now to think that now the once peaceful Kusari system was at a near breaking point with the tensions about Galileo rising ever higher. To make it weirder, the dealer at the time was a man born on planet Houston in the Texas system. He could still remember how the conversation went that day. "Now son, I got to be real with you here, there's not real need for a liberty pilot to have that kind of ship." The dealer told him on that day roughly 4 years ago. "The cost for the work that you're doing isn't worth it. What we have here is a ship that holds weapons categorized by equipment specialists as class 6. The highest weapons and shields you'll ever see in Liberty is a class 4 and even then, that's out near the border world gates. Don't get me wrong here kid, I would love to turn a profit, but this just seems like a crime to me. Get where I'm coming from? There's no real need for it, so why go out and buy it?" Staying adamant in his decision, he simply responded, "You never know sir. There may come a time and day where I might want to get up, pack my bags, and leave liberty space to explore Sirius. Idk anything for sure about my future so I want to keep open all possibilities and be ready for them should anything happen out of the expected." With that, and roughly 70,000 credits later (his whole life savings) he flew off Manhattan and immediately applied for the nearby companies for an escort pilot position. The company supplied him with 3 advanced starbeams and an old Javelin missile launcher that hasn't been issued by any class of pilot since about 30 years ago. Now he looked at his class 6 Flashpoint laser cannons as well as his class 5 Catapult missile launcher and smiled.** ** _All that work and now I'm better prepared than ever._** **And here he was now, sitting with a Liberty ale in hand trying to make it go down his throat for the sake of getting a buzz, just getting fired from the only real career he had known.** ** _Well, maybe now's the time to pack up and travel the sector._** **He thought to himself. Unsure of what to do next, he decided to look to the monitor where the news was taking the other man's attention. The news was on the screens around the corners of the room, but they were all muted so there was no real point in trying to pay attention (except to the odd man, Keegan thought). Images flashed by of Willard Research Station in the California system.** ** _Clayton's workplace? Wonder what's going on there?_** **Before he could really think about it, he heard a noise and turned around. As Keegan took a swig of ale, he heard three men walk into the bar. The three were walking towards him, a look of pure annoyance in their eyes. The one on the left had a scar over his left eye, black combed over hair, and lagged the other two. The one on the right had green eyes, brown flat-topped hair, and seemed the most eager for what was coming. The middle one, the ringleader Keegan could tell had blonde bowl cut hair, sunglasses, and was the bodybuilder of the group. As they strode to him, Keegan noticed that one of them, the one on his left, wielded a stun baton in his hand.** ** _Well, let's see how this goes._** **"Excuse me gents," Keegan said once they walked into earshot, "what seems to be the issue here?" "Cut the crap, boss says you need to leave the mining operation. He also said that you need to stay off it." Keegan turned on the barstool to face them while sitting, "I have a right to be here, he only told me to not fly as a DSE pilot anymore." The ring leader who had been doing all of the talking took another step forward, leaned in, "Well then, seems that we have a problem here don't we? Because you see, my boss gave me orders and I, being the loyal worker for the firm like I am, carry out the orders that the boss gives me." He spoke in a hushed, inconsistently paced tone, indicating that he was either pissed, or insane. Keegan thought a little bit of both wouldn't have been too far off. "Now there are TWO things that tend to PISS me off... the first is being told that I'm being lied to, I honestly can't STAND it. So, tell me Andersen, was I being LIED to by the boss?" He was still staring at Keegan. After some looking at the others,** ** _probably looking for what to say so he doesn't piss this guy off_** **Keegan thought, the one on the right piped up, "err, no sir. He was being very direct with you. The orders he gives are 100% what you said they were." The ring leader gave a maniacal chuckle. "I... THOUGHT so. Now onto the second thing that just annoys me. It's when people don't do what they're told. Now we can do this the EASY way, and you can walk on out of here, never to be seen or heard from again. Or we can do it the... well I don't know maybe the FUN way. The way where my friends and I beat you until you can't figure out a way to walk yourself to your pathetic ship. The call is yours."**

 **"Though, the way I see it, the FUN way is always the BEST way. Go ahead and show him the exit gentlemen. I'll tell the boss that the situation is taken care of." As he walked away, Keegan noticed that he was talking to himself but the focus on that was taken away quickly as the henchmen moved forward. The left one took a swing at Keegan, only to miss and get a swift punch across the exposed side of his face. Another miss and Keegan took the man's arm, pinned it behind his back,** ** _*CRACK*_** **Keegan grinned on the inside as he heard the arm break. With a quick grab of the head, he slammed the man's face into the table** ** _*THUD* *THUD* *THUD*._** **Before he could throw him on the floor however, he felt someone behind him. "Aggh" was the only thing Keegan could make come out of his mouth as he saw his vision turn white.**

 **The next thing he saw was the ceiling of…** ** _wait as I still in the bar? Wait am I on Pittsburgh even? Oh shit…why…chest hurts...fire...fuck me..._** **He was laying down. That much was certain, though he had no clue now where he was. "Calm down kid, you're going to be fine." Although he was unable to sit up, he was able to move his head just enough to see a middle-aged man sitting in the corner of the room.** ** _Least it seems to be a room._** **"Yeah you looked good in there, until the whole 'not paying attention to the only other enemy in the room' thing finally caught up to you. Though I have to say, I was kind of surprised you held your own at all in there. You don't look like the macho fighting type to me." The man was relaxed in his seat with his arms behind his bald head. A gray mustache sat on his upper lip although upon closer inspection, Keegan could see streaks of black still visible if he squinted hard enough. The man spoke in a soft but commanding tone. Something that shouldn't mix well but Keegan found he pulled off well. He wore what looked to be an old red shirt underneath an older liberty jacket of some kind. He had a bottle in his hand and took a sip as he kept his eye on Keegan. At this point, Keegan was unsure how to take this man's attitude towards him. So neutral that it was impossible to read whether he was friend or foe.** ** _Well I guess if he was going to kill me he would've done so already._** **"So, what are you doing on Pittsburgh if Riles is after you. He doesn't normally harass anyone who's in a decent rep with the DSE." The man leaned forward in his seat now, his eyes digging into Keegan's mind, trying to read his face as he waited for an answer. "Ugh… who?" He tried to say more, but every time he tried to speak, he felt like he was being stabbed in the chest with a hot iron rod. "Riles Springer, Blackburn's new 'security detail'? Goes to round up people on his bosses' command? Targets former employees, criminals, and/or spies on Pittsburgh? That doesn't ring any bells?" To be honest it really didn't. Keegan had seen Riles before, though at the time he thought that he was a severe mental patient coming to visit an employee with his family. After seeing the confused look on his face, the man continued to address Keegan. "A madman. That's about a sum up definition of the bastard. Riles isn't one to be trifled with for many reasons. He usually does the dirty work himself, but Blackburn must have had something else assigned for him. The fact that his henchmen nearly got beaten to death will really set the both of them off though and Blackburn will most likely let Riles do what he wants in that case." He was talking what seemed a million miles a minute to Keegan. Sorting through the information, he attempted to make a coherent sentence.**

 **"Then why… ugh… why does he want to kill me?" Keegan had to keep his eyes shut for fear of vomiting. "Well it could be multiple things. Getting fired and refusing to leave is about 80% of what I've seen in terms of reasoning. However, judging by your appearance, you're the one that asked too many questions." "Huh? What do you…" Keegan began, "There's been rumors going around about Blackburn's recent outburst. The one I keep hearing is that a small, brown hair fellow tried to prove what he knew and ended up saying too much of what he knew. Assuming that's you because you fit the description fairly well." Keegan just stayed silent as he tried to sit up. His chest was still on fire, but his head cleared up. "What the hell happened down there? Who are you? Why did you…" he was about to say kidnap until he realized he was back on his own ship. "What happened was I took care of the guy who smacked you in the chest with a stun baton. Like I said, you were so focused on the guy you were beating, you forgot about his buddy." There was a brief but noticeable silence as the two sat there on the Hawk. "Okay enough silence, what did you say to your former boss that made him send Riles after you?" Keegan began to open his mouth again to ask the man for his name but closed it as he continued talking. "Listen, the names not important, I was keeping an eye on things around here until I decided to blow my cover to save your ass. Was my favorite place to get drinks here too, despite the lack of class. You're a lucky son of a bitch if I've ever seen one." Once again, silence took over the two. "So, uh, he hit me with a stun baton you say?" Keegan thought of nothing else but the pain he was feeling now. The man's eyes softened a tad bit, not enough to take the fear out of Keegan's soul, but enough for him to take notice. "Yeah… you'll be fine though, I've had several friends take a hit with one before, it's called a stun baton for a reason." "Ah okay." Keegan tried to sound relieved to hear that news, but he had so many questions left. "Well I think I'll leave you to it." The man said as he got up and walked to the hatch. "Hang on a second," something didn't add up quite right with Keegan. "You're telling me that you, a middle-aged man, came to my rescue while I was knocked out, dragged me out of the bar, took me to my ship, and now you're just going to leave just like that?" "Look, kid what else do you want to know." "How about maybe a name for starters." Keegan was able to put some effort into that sentence at least. The man just looked at him sternly, "Names Michael. That's all you get from me. Now if you want some more information, I advise leaving the planet ASAP. Once they find out you're still alive the longer you stay, the worse off you'll be." "Why? What would they ever want to do to me? Why do they want to kill me?" "I'm not 100% sure of anything other than what I told you. You proved too much to the man that you want to think you know as little as possible. Now then, stay off the planet until things get settled back down into order." The man then walked off the ship and headed to his own. Keegan got up off the bed and headed to his cockpit, so he could get a glimpse of what he was flying, but by the time he got a clear shot of what he was looking at, the ship was already out of the planet's atmosphere.** ** _Man, what the hell just happened?_** **Keegan could only wonder as he started up his ship and opened the comm channel with Logan.**

Planet Denver, Colorado System

 **"Damn man, what a steal." Logan was grinning ear to ear at the final payout for the cargo they escorted to the Rio Grande; a Liberty Navy battleship stationed near planet Gunnison in the Colorado system. They had just had an easy run there and were settling down in the bar on Denver for drinks after finding out that the machinery they had sold paid out about 550,000 credits. "Yeah man," Withers joined in after taking a sip of Liberty Ale. "Take half of that, split it up into 4, and that there's a fine deal. Almost 69,000 credits for each of us." "Man, I don't think I've ever had that much money before." It dawned on Logan at that moment how much he had really made. Growing up, he had it a bit rougher than most. Parents divorced at a young age, he had to take charge of his siblings while his mother and stepfather worked long shifts. It wasn't easy, but he had made it through and thought he did a pretty good job in the process. On top of taking care of his sisters, he was constantly struggling with finances, never having more than a few hundred credits in the bank at a single time. The stressful struggle continued up until a few years back when Keegan recommended a job for the DSE firm. Even then, this was by far the largest payout he had ever received on the job, and there was probably more coming soon once the jump gates in Galileo get under way in being constructed. "I just can't believe we weren't ambushed by thugs or something on the way there. Attacks on convoys have always been a hassle you know?" He took another sip of his drink. "Yeah," Logan said, "we got pretty damn lucky if you ask me. So, what are you going to do with your share of the dough?" Before his wingman could respond, Logan's comm link activated with a quick ring.**

 **He picked it up, "Hello?" "Logan, it's Damian. Have you contacted Keegan or Clayton lately?" "Well Mr. 'I can't say hi to one of my friends because of my unique situation', let me see if I have any new messages. Oh, would you look at that, no new messages of any kind, guess you have to leave then." He was outside of the bar at this point walking towards the restrooms in the dimly lit hallway. "Logan come on, it's urgent." Logan remained silent as he walked through the bathroom door. "Oh, for fuck sakes… Hello Logan, how are you doing today? Can you PLEASE tell me whether or not you have seen either Clayton or Keegan recently?" "Why thank you Damian, and as a matter of fact I did see Keegan just about a day ago." He stopped talking. "Okay…. Have you heard anything from Clayton?" "What's the catch Pohlman?" Logan asked, suspicious of what the real reason was behind the recent contact. It's not like him just to call him out of the blue, their personal friendship wasn't all that established to the point where he could say "Hey Damian, it's Logan here, why don't you and Courtney come on over?" One of the main reasons why they even associated anymore despite going through school together for so long was because Keegan and Clayton were both their friends. "Catch? Something has gone terribly wrong as of recently and I'm trying to make sure my friends weren't involved." Logan sat in silence again, waiting for more. He heard Damian sigh over the channel in defeat. "Fine, I need to get the three of you to the Battleship Missouri here in New York. Rumors of an attack somewhere in Liberty have surfaced and a call to all pilots has been issued. It's going to be televised throughout the colony, but I figured if you guys wanted to be there yourself, maybe take a tour of the ship, I don't know. Just something I thought we all could do as a group." Logan still wasn't buying it. "Uh huh..." "what?" Damian was sounding irritated for a second, upset that his methods of cover were ineffective to Logan's ears. "That's not all of it. What's really happening?" Logan demanded. "Fine, you're right. There's something much worse going on. I can't tell you what happened over the channel. That's why I need you to contact Keegan and tell him to meet me on the Missouri ASAP. You get over here as fast as you can too. I really need you guys here." "What about Clayton?" "I'll take care of it. Just make sure you and Keegan are there when I get there. Like I said, the sooner the better." With that, a beep sounded, and Logan heard nothing more on the other end of the call. He quickly went to the sink, splashed some cold water on his face, and went back out to the bar. "Yo man, everything cool?" Withers turned to face Logan as he walked back in. "Yeah, I just got to cut the celebration short. A close friend of mine wants me to meet him elsewhere. Said that it was urgent." "Alright then, I'll have to drink enough for the both of us then." Withers grinned as he took his bottle and downed it, waving to Logan with his free hand as he walked out onto the launch pad. Once he got to the ship, he attempted to get into contact with Keegan.**

 **"Yo." Keegan sounded distant as he picked up the responder. "Did Damian try and contact you?" Logan asked. He of course knew that Damian wanted him to contact Keegan, but he probably figured it was because Keegan brushed the situation off. "Yeah… yeah, he did… look, I've had a bit of a rough day and I need some good rest right now. Can't this wait some other time." "He told me ASAP man. I understand that you've had a rough day with being fired, but come on. You can ride with me if you don't feel like flying. I'll come to Pittsburgh and pick you up." "Uh yeah, about that… a little bit of a thing went down after you left." "What do you mean a thing?" Logan asked with suspicion. He was then informed on what had happened on Pittsburgh after he had left on the shipping run. He was filled in on everything from the odd run in and brawl with Springer and his crew and then jumping into the story with the strange man afterwards. "Well shit, looks like I should've never left. It sounded like you needed a bit of help." "Nah man, from the sound of it, you landed yourself the biggest paycheck of your life. Besides, luck was on my side this time. Let's just say that Springer's cronies won't be walking for a little while." "While that's good and all, there's a bigger issue here regarding you and your safety. What do you think he was doing on the planet anyway?" Logan asked referring to the man again. "If I knew, I would've mentioned it. Look, I'm chilling at Baltimore Shipyard right now, if you want-" "whoa hold up, why are you there?" There was a heavy sigh as Keegan prepared to answer. "Apparently someone sabotaged the ship engines just enough so that I didn't feel comfortable going past the first trade lane. They're looking at it now, but I'm not quite sure when it's going to be ready for flight again." Logan just shook his head. "Luck is not as on your side as you think my friend. Okay then, I'll come to get you at Baltimore. I'll let Pohlman know that we'll be a bit late." "Speaking of," Keegan said, "you never mentioned why Damian wanted to see us. Something wrong?" "Well," Logan began, "apparently there was an attack of some sort and he needs us for whatever reason." "So… he couldn't just tell you?" Keegan questioned, "Why?" "He mentioned something about the information that he knew being classified. Said that he couldn't say anything over the channel. Whatever the case, I guess we should appease him. I'll be at Baltimore in a half hour." "Alright then man, see you then." With that, Logan heard a beep and the other end died.** ** _Wonder what this is going to be about. Whatever it is, it better be worth my time._**


	8. Chapter 7: No Holds Barred

**12 hours ago (continuing from Chapter 5)**

 **Footsteps took Damian's mind out of reminiscing. As he was brought back to the present, he heard footsteps as Alice walked towards him, tears glimmering in her eyes. They had been sitting and reminiscing about the great, yet ever so short, time that they had with David. "The poor kid was only 19 Pohlman." She said when she got in earshot. "I know." Damian said, trying to sound emotionally neutral. She continued, "You remember what you were like when you were in the academy right? The kind of kids we used to be. Always going out during the night and having a blast when we knew that we could have been dishonorably discharged for it? Flying around the New York system, getting into red situations with criminals every now and again? She was in tears by now as she sat down next to him. He was about to say something, but she started to talk before he had gotten the chance. "He was barely out of the academy. He didn't even get the chance to start living a normal life like the rest of us. Why is life such a bitch? An evil conniving little bitch." As she said the last bit, she slammed her fist so hard on the counter that it shook the bottles behind it. Not knowing what exactly to do, he just patted her on the back as she started to sob. As he did this, he looked over his shoulder to see if anyone was looking at them. Sure enough, Lt. Rodgers was walking towards them with a folder in hand. Damian got up and met him in the middle, saluting him when he got close enough. "At ease Corporal." Rodgers instructed. He looked over Damian's shoulder, noticed Alice crying, looked back to Damian and whispered, "Trouble in paradise?" "What? No sir, I'm engaged to another." Rodgers then did something that Damian never saw him do before. Rodgers started to laugh, rather laugh hard, harder than he should have been at such a statement. "You think as your CO's assistant I never once looked through your personal files? I mean come on, lighten up a bit. Really though, what's wrong with her." He nudged towards Alice again, who still had her head down sobbing like there was no tomorrow. "She's still upset about the attack, nerves, loss of David, I think she started to grow fond of him. It's hitting her like a freighter at this point and I'm not quite sure what to do about it." "Ah, I can take care of her if you want." Rodgers said. Looking at her again. His eyes suddenly widened as he realized something. "Oh crap, I forgot, the reason I came was because you're wanted by Smith." "Huh?" Damian and quizzically, "what for exactly? I haven't done anything." "I don't know for sure, but I overheard him and another captain talking about the Ithaca situation. I'm thinking that they want information on that maybe? I don't think you're in trouble or anything though." His eyes wandered again to Alice. "Rodgers?" Damian snapped his fingers in front of his face. He quickly snapped out of the funk he was in. "Sorry, he wants you in his office, 15 minutes ago." Damian cursed as he ran over to the barstool to grab his jacket. As he ran back past Rodgers on the way out of the bar, he stopped and put a hand on his shoulder, "now's not the time to be Romeo here man." "It'll come up due time Corporal, now get to your CO's office."**

 **Even after docking with the Missouri, Damian still had heard no word from anyone about the situation, or why it regarded him in any way. It seemed to be serious though as he noticed the battleship was on high alert as well.** ** _Maybe it's still from the attack on Ithaca that's setting the alarms off_** **he thought to himself. Though it seemed to be much larger of an ordeal than what he originally thought. As Damian walked into what he thought was a 1 on 1 meeting with his captain, he became swarmed by reporters outside Smith's door. Questions popped up as flashes overtook his vision. "Mr. Pohlman, can you tell us about the recent Ithaca situation?" "Rumors have been reported that you were sighted at the wreckage. Anything to say on the matter?" "Is it true that you left your post to aid in the attack?" "Why did you leave your post in the first place?"**

 **By the time he was able to push through to Smith's office door, the noise and light became nearly unbearable. As he attempted to turn the knob on the old-fashioned door handle, it opened from the other side. Blake Booth had opened it and attempted to keep the media back as Pohlman squeezed by him into the dimly lit room. After making his way in, he turned around and helped Blake close the door, pushing against several people until he finally heard the lock click. He turned around and nodded to Booth, who in turn just looked at the floor and walked to a seat, somehow not being able to look his former wingman in the eye. Looking around the office, Damian could tell that he was not given the full detail on what was going on. On the right side of the office sat what appeared to be the entirety of the Gold 6 squadron. If something had happened to one of their members as well, Damian immediately thought,** ** _so that's why Booth is here then. To support his squad, but what did they do exactly and why in the hell am I here?_** **He looked straight ahead and saw Smith sitting behind his desk as usual, a mixture of gravity and anger combined oddly in his eyes as he peered into what felt like Damian's soul. "You." He said in a frozen manner, "Sit down right in this chair. NOW!" His cold tone turned into an impatient rage as Damian hesitated to get situated in front of him. "You are a hard man to figure out corporal, you know that?" "Sir?" A single raised eyebrow in question was all Damian could figure out to muster as he listened to his CO. "What exactly are you talking about?"**

 **Smith looked at him again, trying to stare the being out of him. "Why don't you tell me what happened at New Ithaca." "Finally, I've wanted to give an official report on what happened out there. So, we took off from West Point with clearance from the station after seeing that the patrol routes were saturated with plenty of fighter wings. We wanted to check the place out because it was so close to being opened to the public and we wanted to see what a bang-up job they did. Well not a minute after we arrived, as we were trying to communicate and setup docking preparations with the place, we lost all signal with it. That's when everything seemed to happen at once. Ships that none of us had ever seen before appeared out of the purple haze and immediately engaged us without warning. After only a few minutes, the civilian patrol—I think they were an Ageira crew—were no more. The Navy patrol on duty went down seconds after and my wingman…" He choked back tears as he got to the mentioning of his student and friend. "My wingman got shot down too." He said with a strained look on his face. "Soon after most of the opposition was out of the way, they focused fire on the station while keeping us at bay. Whatever they used to sabotage the communications was still working. I didn't hear a sound as the station fell apart." He was shaking now. Trying to not lose control as his CO made him relive the moment that he was trying so hard to forget. Smith looked at him, if anything his anger only began to boil over as he spoke again. "So, what you're saying is that the museum that was being constructed is now gone correct?" "Yes sir." "So, it's gone and there's no way of telling who did it, why they did it, or exactly how they did things like break up the communication signal?" "Sir, I've never seen anything like it. It's the truth though I swear." Smith's face didn't change; Damian was confused as to why he seemed to get angrier with each passing second. "Do you know this man?" Smith pulled out a picture of a man with bottom-rimless glasses, dark brown hair, standing tall and lanky in a lab coat. "Yes sir, Clayton Haug. I've known him for longer than I can honestly remember." Smith put the photo away as soon as he heard the "sir". "Well then, maybe you can tell me what the meaning of this is."**

 **He reached under, and pulled the familiar shape of a holo-file from one of the drawers of his desk. Tossing it into his desk, Smith activated it immediately. A video recording popped up displaying a man with… Damian's stomach lurched… bottom-rimless glasses, white lab coat, and dark brown hair. "To anyone out there, this is Clayton Haug of Willard Research Station." He was speaking in a very hushed tone, as if he were trying to record undetected. Taking another breath, he continued, "We are under attack and need all ships to respond immediately. Couple of men… I'm not sure who…. they…. they were let aboard the station…they started to shoot up the place…I'm here with a few others from weapons research. I'm not sure who these guys are looking for or what they plan to do with them. They just…keep killing…I've seen many things…this takes the cake. If there's anyone out there…just get here as fast as you can." A distant voice started to panic. "Shit they found us I got to cut off here. Anyone please come get us!" "Hey Strider, got some more of these scientist fucks over here." "Alright, you know what to do then. Wait a minute, that's the guy we need Harris. Mr. glasses guy." The feed stopped shortly after the noise of what Damian could only deduce as side arms began firing.**

 **Smith shut the folder and looked at Damian dead set again. "This happened at the EXACT same time as the Ithaca attack; the attack that you claimed to have seen while visiting the Badlands; the one that you have claimed to have been performed by unknown ships using never seen technology; an attack so large in recent history that it almost seems to be fabricated. Yet when we sent troops from West Point out to the Badlands, not only did they find no evidence of any outside interference, but they found several pieces of evidence supporting the possibility of the station being torn apart by Liberty weapons." Damian just sat back gawking at his commander in disbelief. "So, you think that I was part of the attack team? Are you serious? Why would I kill one of my closest friends in the Navy?" "I'm not 100% certain, but that's what the evidence indicates and it's hard to argue with evidence. There's always the possibility that you may have 'taken out' your friend to make your story more believable. Whatever the case, the way things are looking we have two possible outcomes: you can come out and admit that you abandoned your post, sabotaged the communications," "Oh for fuck sakes," Damian said trying to interrupt Smith, "took out the guard patrol along with the escort squadron, the twin transports, and the biggest crime of all, taking out a large space station that had just gotten done being constructed. In addition, you will also admit to the false leading of Navy fighters away from actual danger in the case of Willard. These will result in immediate dishonorable discharge from the Navy and, after a few weeks of humiliation in prison station, execution. Your other option is that as we find more evidence," "'Evidence.'" Damian interrupted again, using air quotes. "your interruptions have been noted Corporal and they are not helping your case. Continuing from where I left off, we find more evidence supporting the same sabotage, attack, and distraction resulting in the same thing as option one. Either way, you WILL NOT serve this colony again and you WILL NOT survive to hit your next birthday." "WHAT?!" Damian immediately stood up and approached Smith's desk. "You're telling me that I'm going straight to death without a proper trial in court? That's illegal!" Two of the members of Gold 6 immediately got up to block his path to the desk. "Watch yourself Pohlman, things are already looking bad for you. You are almost proven a criminal on the Intercolonial scale based on evidence. There's no need for a court date to justify your punishment. You will be judged purely based on evidence by the peers sitting in this room right now. Majority vote wins and voting is final." "This is ridiculous." He wanted to say more, but words slipped away from him. "I understand your anger, but you brought this upon yourself. You're only angry because you got caught." Damian was barely able to restrain himself from jumping through the two pilots and onto Smith. He knew arguing was useless, but leaving without another word on the matter felt like a defeat without trying. "Fine." He said through clenched teeth, finally admitting defeat despite his gut instinct to tell his now former captain off.**

 **"Alright then," Smith said in a rather satisfied tone. One of the pilots from Gold 6, a red headed woman with blue eyes, got up and pulled out a pair of handcuffs. "What are these for?" Damian asked as she approached him and fastened them to his wrists. "Security purposes, to make sure you don't go running off," she replied. She escorted him out of the room with Smith following close behind her. After walking down, the corridor away from his office, Smith dismissed her back to his office to be a part of the "jury" that would be judging Damian's fate. "You sure about this sir?" She had asked, clearly afraid of what Damian could do to the middle-aged captain, "100% Ash, just go do your duty. I'll be okay with handling him alone." Shaking her head, she jogged back to his office mumbling to herself along the way. When they had finally heard the door shut, Smith turned to Damian and grinned in a rather sinister manner. He pulled out a syringe in an exceptionally swift motion. Before Damian could do anything, he found the needle in his neck and his vision getting blurry. "Shh, it's okay my treasonous friend, now is where the fun begins."**

 **When Damian awoke, he found himself laying on a concrete floor behind bars. No bed, toilet, or furnishings of any kind, the cell was completely bare. Still groggy, he crawled to the bars of the cell to see if he could figure out where he was. As he was crawling, he heard the alarm sound for a docking procedure, signaling that he was at least on a station or ship of some sort and not a planet. Looking through the bars, he noticed that he was in some sort of prison; rows upon rows of steel cells stretched as far as he could see, stretching nine stories high.** ** _So, looks like a prison station. Great, another place to mark off my bucket list._** **Using the bars to support himself, he stood up and peered across the long hall, seeing if he could find someone else to talk to. Noticing that his neighboring cells were empty, he whistled to see if he could grab someone's attention.** ** _Surely there's someone else here. Who in their right mind leaves a prison of this size unguarded._** **To his surprise, nobody came by or even acknowledged the noise. He peeked to his left and noticed at the end of the long corridor sat what looked like a security gate. A booth guarded the gate yet, Damian could see nobody inside it. A camera sat above the booth considering the corridor, able to see the doors of the cells.** ** _Primitive, but effective I guess._** **That was about all he could think when it came to the design of the holding area. It looked like something ancient, like something prisons back on earth used.** ** _Maybe slightly better,_** **he deducted after a bit. He sat there by the bars. After waiting for what felt like a few more minutes (it was impossible to keep track of time), he went back into his cell and sat against the back wall and closed his eyes; trying to recover from the dizziness that lingered with him. He sat there for what seemed like forever. Thinking about the possible outcomes of the trial, what he did to deserve a trial, and most of all, wondering why his friend would ever be taken.**

 **The next thing he knew, he heard a door open at the far left of the corridor. Someone opened the door of the security booth and was walking towards his cell. Trying to play it cool, he stood up, placed one foot against the wall, and put his head down.** ** _If someone's going to do something to me, might as well look like I don't care._** **The footsteps continued coming towards him, getting closer and closer. Before he looked up, he noticed that whoever was coming sprinted the last few cells before finding his. When Damian finally opened his eyes, he saw Blake on the other side of the cell, hitting the lever to open the door. "Come on, voting is done. Smith sent me to get you, he wants to see you." "Oh really. Smith wants to see me?" Damian asked in a satirical manner. "Well would you look at that? Smith wants to see me, and he sent his good old lap dog to fetch me." Blake sighed, "You really want to be a child now? I don't think that it's the right time for this." "Oh, well by all means. If it's not the right time in your book, then it must be wrong for everyone else's too." "Just put the cuffs on Pohlman. We don't have time for this." Even though he wanted to keep dragging this out, Damian reluctantly took the handcuffs and linked his hands together. "Now," Blake said, his tone more stern and rigid, "start walking."**

 **Damian hadn't been able to see the entirety of the corridor when he was trapped in his cell but what he saw confirmed what he already assumed. The cell columns were in fact, much taller than what he could originally see, making it even weirder to him that there weren't others around in the prison. Blake stood behind and shoved him down the corridor when he tried to stop moving. "The faster you get out of here, the better it will be for you." He didn't want to argue with Blake any more than vice versa, but he was still holding onto a specific grudge from the past. "Just like it was better for you when you left the squadron in such a hurry?" Blake shoved him, "I didn't leave to ditch you guys. I left because I was offered a better position with more going on. Don't tell me that you, Mr. 'I hate patrolling because there's so many pilots here already', wouldn't have done the same exact thing if you had been offered a chance to do so." He had opened his mouth to prepare a response, but Damian closed it because Blake was right. If he had been offered the same deal that would have meant not patrolling, he wouldn't have hesitated to take it either. He just sighed and closed his mouth. "Look man," Booth continued, "I get it. You were more than anything, jealous…" "I was not…" "dude I get it, I would have been seething if you had been picked for the position I'm in right now. The thing is, this spot is even more monotonous than where you were when you patrolled all day long. The only difference is that it involves training cadets and doing nothing but paperwork in whatever off time you can find. Oh, and well I guess in some rare cases, this. This isn't a part of the Navy work though. Think of this as my true calling." "Breaking your friends out of jail is your true calling?" Damian asked. "Working for a better cause to fight oppression and to stabilize warlike conditions in the colonies is what I do, what we do. I feel like this, is where I belong." He didn't seem in the mood to get to specifics, so Damian tried to progress the conversation. "Speaking of 'this'," he made a gesture with his arm as best as he could, given his condition. "where exactly are we going?" Damian turned his head to the left and noticed two guards knocked unconscious right underneath the cockpit of Blake's Defender, which they were about ready to board. "Why are those guys knocked out? What the hell did you do?" Blake just slapped him in the back of the head again and whispered in his ear, "Just wait until we're on the damn ship. I'll tell you everything."**

 **Between the suspicious look in Blake's eyes, the emptiness of the prison station, and now the guards knocked unconscious near the hangar, Damian just about had enough. After they got strapped into the cockpit of Booth's Defender, he finally exploded. "Are you going to tell me what the fuck is going on or not man? Why did you really come to get me? Where the hell are we? Why was this 'high security prison' so empty? And why the hell are there men after Haug?" Blake pretended like Damian wasn't there while he took the liberty of completing the pre-launch checks of the ship. "Engines good, thrusters operational, weapons are green, ship hull is stable…" Damian just sat there angrily tapping the shelf in front of him. "Dude come on, the ship is fine. Tell me what the fuck is going on." He still ignored him and kept doing so until the ship checklist was crossed off. When he closed the HUD, he turned to his right and looked at Damian, the look of defeat in his young eyes. He looked like he hadn't gotten sleep in weeks Damian noticed. Being in front of him the entire time and not really paying attention to the tone of his voice, he realized that he had sounded dreadful throughout the entire conversation. "What's going on my good friend, is that I have been lying to you the entire time. I had told you that Smith had wanted to see you to hand your trial results out to you." "Yeah, so he could admit to me that he was wrong for ever accusing me and to show everyone new evidence that popped up proving that Alice and I weren't involved." Blake just shook his head. "Man, how high of a pedestal are you on? That's not even close dude. The vote was unanimous. It had to be. If Smith saw that anyone of us felt sympathy for you, he would have killed us as well. He was wanting someone you didn't know to come pick you up, make you believe that you were going back to his office. They were going to take you to the cargo hold and jettison your ass out in the middle of Liberty Space, leave you for dead. I knew that if I didn't come and help you out, you were done for." Damian was in such utter disbelief that he forgot where he was for a second.** ** _No wait, I still never did find out._** **"Blake," Damian started slowly, "where exactly are we?" "Where you were imprisoned at was Prison Station Mitchell. They stuck you all the way in the Alaska system behind the Zone 21 jump gate which as you can see, is not the cheeriest of systems. You had quite a feat to be out here, especially considering you were 'under trial'." "So how did you come and get me if Smith had someone else assigned for the job?" They were in cruise speed heading towards the jump gate back to New York. It was eerily still in the greenish blue hazy system. A single shipyard sat to the right of the jump gate heading out. Other than that, the prison station-which sat as the innermost structure-, and a few navigation buoys, nothing else could be seen in the system. Keeping a careful eye out, Blake continued. "It wasn't easy. I asked Stevens when he was working the shift at Mitchell." "Hold on, he works in this creepy place as well?" Blake just laughed. "Yeah man, he works in all military and police stations. He takes shifts on whichever one he feels like. A little bit of luck went a long way though in our case. I told him to sabotage all the cameras in a way so that it looked like a power failure occurred at the station." "Is that why there's nobody here either then?" Damian still couldn't figure out why the station was so empty both in and out of the cell. "Ummm… yeah I might have gotten carried away there. Remember how you spotted the knocked-out guards as we were boarding the ship?" Damian took a deep sigh, already guessing at what was coming next. "Yeah…" They were entering docking procedure with the jump gate now, Blake seemingly inching the ship towards the entrance. "Well… there were originally sixteen guards and six faculty workers. I took out about twelve and knocked out the others." "YOU WHAT!?" Before he got any further, they had entered jump speed. In a matter of seconds, they were transported at a high velocity back out into the New York System, coming out specifically at Zone 21. After catching his breath, Damian looked at Blake again, "You did what now?" "Look, I could only knock out so many before I ran out of places to hide the bodies." "But what did you do with the ones you killed?" "Threw them out of the airlock, like all the garbage in the system." Damian unfastened himself from his chair and took off to the back of the ship where he vomited into the cargo hold. "You're lucky I have nothing of value back there you asshole." He heard Blake calling from the cockpit. "Ah come on, it's not like I jettisoned the ones who were knocked out. I made sure they were dead first, well mostly sure anyway." There was a sort of cheer in his voice that Damian found sickening. After coughing and spitting the remains out, Damian hit the manual jettison of the hold to release it into space. Coughing a little more, he walked back and took his seat near his former squad mate again. "What happened to you dude? I stop flying with you for a few years and now look at you. You're some sort of secret agent Casper Orillion bullshit roaming around launching people into orbit, invading highly secure stations, and defying orders from your commander. Let me guess, you also killed the guy who was supposed to come pick me up as well?" "Lucky guess." Blake said quietly, almost mumbling the two words. "But yeah I did take care of him as well. It wasn't easy though and things got out of hand once the guards in the prison figured out I wasn't…" he pulled out an ID badge, "Jake Roxford. So, a thank you would be appreciated whenever you get the guts to speak again."**

 **Utter shock. That's all he felt. Forget the attack on Ithaca, this was the second most shocking moment of his life (right above his friend being taken hostage but right below getting nearly pulverized by unknown hostile sat Ithaca). The mild, quiet Blake Booth that he had always known and whom he had thought turned into an asshole, suddenly pops in and saves his ass. "So, you mentioned that Stevens sabotaged the cameras," He started again. "So why the hell did you keep me cuffed and abused like a killer?" "Security measures, in case someone from higher up caught sight of cameras that somehow went back online. If you had been released, well use some logical thinking on what would happen. Whereas if I kept you cuffed, I could just hide my face a bit without making it look suspicious. They wouldn't be able to catch me in focus well enough, so we would have been okay. I mean, I was on schedule and all that stuff. The main reason I did it though was to harass you a bit, give you a really hard time." "You're such an asshole." "I know man." Booth focused his attention forward as they continued to fly out of Zone 21. "So, where's Alice at?" Damian had almost forgotten about his wingman. "Well let's see now Mr. Pohlman, where was the last time you saw her?" He thought back to the bar on the Missouri and immediately panicked. "Oh, shit dude, she was being hit on by Rodgers. We got to get her out of-" "Calm down man, everything is good. She's waiting for us up ahead with the others at the Missouri." It took him but only a moment to process what Blake had said. When they had gotten to the edge of the minefield, they saw three other fighters near the clearing. "Sir, we have about an hour for our lunch break. We have to move quickly if we are to get the target to safety." Damian didn't recognize the voice nor the name that came up on the radar but concluded that these were some of the people that had the same interests as Blake. "That will be plenty of time. We only need to get him as far as to the Missouri. Engage cruise engines and set coordinates for it." Blake set his coordinates and locked the ship's flight path onto them. After the cruise engines hit max speed and the ship stabilized, Blake got up from his chair and beckoned Damian to follow him. "What now?" "Come on, you need to hide." Blake was walking to the back of the ship near the cargo hold. "So, I'm going to hide in the scannable cargo center? Are you completely idiotic?" Blake just turned and gave him a seething glare. "After what you have just seen at the prison station, do you really think I'm dumb enough to put you in a spot where a simple button press can compromise this entire mission? I would have liked to ha e a little bit more trust than that, even from you." Damian just stood there mute, looking at the ground waiting for Blake to continue. "No, where you're going is here." He crouched and opened a smaller hatch in the floor of the ship, revealing a room with speakers and a small window. The walls of the compartment were made from a solid black material that Damian had never seen before. The compartment itself was roughly ¾ the size of a standard cargo holds and was barely large enough to fit a few people inside. "When did they install these onto these ships?" "Custom made for our purposeful usage." Blake responded as he stood back up. "Nobody knows about these compartments and scanners are 100% useless in trying to pick up anything that's inside of them. So long as you don't mind a slightly cramped space, you'll be 100% safe." After a moment of hesitation, Damian quickly crawled into the space and allowed Blake to shut the hatch. "Still hear me?" Blake's voice rang around inside the compartment from the speakers. "Yeah, loud and clear." He was amazed at the fact that people were able to get something like this up and working. With a few more adjustments, he was able to get himself situated and ready to go for the flight to the Missouri.**

 **For about a minute more the crew stayed in cruise speed. Damian was looking through the small window and noticed the mines they were leaving behind. He had been in the Navy for 8 years and he never had the chance to be back in Liberty's private sector. The mines that surrounded the path to the jump gate to Alaska have been said to be the most dangerous type developed by any colony. Combine that with the fact that there were usually patrols and cruisers surveying the area always (Damian figured the reason why they weren't today had something to do with the pilots from Blake's 'organization') and it was no wonder why nobody from the outside ever got the chance to explore some of its secrets. Zone 21 was where the most dangerous were taken and where the weapon testing was performed. Still in awe at the fact that he had been captured, his mind wandered off to his friend. Through all the commotion of getting out of the Mitchell, he had forgotten to ask Blake questions about why Clayton would have been a target in a kidnapping. Right then he thought about asking Blake but held his breath and decided that there would be time for that in a little while. For about fifteen more minutes, the ship sat in cruise speed until a sudden jolt made Damian hit his head on the hatch. As he started to rub it, he saw out of the corner of his eye and through the window a small ship (relatively speaking) fly past the Defender.** ** _Outcasts?_** **Damian thought to himself.** ** _What the hell do they want?_** **"Pohlman, you okay back there?" Blake's voice came through the speakers again. "Hit my head but I'll be okay. I think we got company though." "Fuckers knocked out the cruise engines, hang on tight. Things may get a bit rough." Blake then directed his full attention towards the Outcast ships, who were now stalling as if waiting for a reason to blow them out of space (odd he thought, when they didn't need reasons to blow people out of space before). "Outcast ships, this is 2** **nd** **lieutenant Blake Booth of the Liberty Navy, please identify yourselves and explain the meaning of this sudden ambush." "Officer, this is Outcasts Alpha 5, it appears that one of your men is carrying a heavy dosage of Cardamine that was recently stolen from us, tell him to jettison the cargo or we will engage." "Guys, what is he talking about?" Damian managed to find his way into the Navy squadron's voice channel. As he looked through the people who were in the wing (none of whom he recognized), he heard one of them speak up. "Sir, we ran into a wing of Outcasts on our way to you. I may have picked up some cargo off them after the fight." "And you didn't think to jettison the illegal substance or to shove into the smuggling bay?" Blake asked clearly bringing with him a tone that could only be summed up as a combination of stress and annoyance. "I didn't know I picked anything of value up. How often do you pick up something of value to these assholes?" "You guys have 10 seconds to make a decision before we open fire." The Outcast leader piped up." Blake just sighed in frustration, "Whatever, we can discuss this later. Keep that shit about destroying their friends on the down low. Try and jettison the cargo but keep the nanobots on the ready. No telling what these guys will do once they see your shield go down." "Roger that." A few seconds later, the pilot released the cargo out into space near the criminal ships, leaving his hull exposed to the mostly hostile ships. "You Navy folks are even dumber than you sound. All units, engage the patrol! Focus fire on the unshielded vessel first!"**

 **The hostile ships suddenly broke formation and swarmed Blake's exposed escort. Within seconds (and before either Blake or his wingmen could react) the Navy pilot exploded; nothing but a fiery ball of flame and scrap heaps of metal left where the Defender once was. Before Damian could adjust himself, he was thrown to the other side of the hold as Blake charged forward and pitched the ship to the left. He heard the ship shields deflecting damage as the firefight erupted, taking the punishment from the devastating weapons that the Outcasts were known to wield. "POHLMAN, GET UP HERE, I NEED YOU NOW!" The ship lurched to the right and Damian heard the weapons go off as Blake pelted the hostile ships flying around him. The Outcast wing, although originally thought to be four by Damian, turned out to be seven fighters to the now three Navy pilots that remained after the initial action. In a frenzy, Damian managed to bust open the hatch, fall flat on his rear as Blake moved the ship upwards, and finally managed to crawl to the cockpit where he could see the swear coming down from Blake's short black hair covered head. "Get on that console over there." He pointed to his left where another chair and wheel sat. Once he got strapped in, Damian found that he was behind the seat of what looked like a weapon center. "You want me to take control of the weapons while you fly?" "No, just the rear turret. Focus the ships with shields still on them and, if you do nothing else to contribute, call out the targets." Before he could doubt him and as if on cue, two Outcast ships started to tail them. "Now would be a good time to show me what you know about shooting man." Blake killed his engines abruptly and turned his ship to face the other two, who were still using their thrusters. "BLAKE, HIT THE LEFT ONE!" Damian yelled as he fired the turret. The hostile lost his shields after only a few shots. It caught both him and Damian off guard about equally. Blake seemed unfazed however and pounded the hull of the enemy as he attempted to fly past. The shots landed, and the ship spun out of control until it violently exploded. "Dead ahead Pohlman." Damian rotated the turret to the ship that managed to fly right past. He was trying to deke to the right, but the two were able to chase it down, the turret making quick work of the shield, and the rest of Blake's arsenal able to finish him off. With two down, they took a quick peek at the scanner. Apparently, the people who work with Booth were extremely efficient when they're given a fair fight. The other two ships were able to break the fight down to just one hostile, who collapsed under the combined firepower of all three Navy ships. Damian and Blake just sat back in their seats (well more than usual anyway) trying to come off their adrenaline high. After what could have been considered an hour by most people's standard of time, Damian mindlessly stuck his fist out. It took a few second for Blake to catch on but without looking, connected his for a fist bump. "Just like old times huh?" Damian asked, a smile of relief starting to form on his face. "If I do remember correctly, the 'old times' never involved us in the same ship together." "Hahaha. That's true enough. Maybe we can call this the big reunion." Blake just shook his head as he deactivated his weapons and double checked his ship's status. "That was some impressive shooting. You did good dude." "My shooting was good? Nah dude your piloting did all the work, it was just like a video game for me. What the hell do they pack in turrets like that anyway that makes the shield melt so fast?" "That there is what's known as an advanced Debilitator** **turret. Basically, it's a civilian weapon with some specialty in taking down shields. Like an EMP missile, but lots of smaller projectiles. Pretty handy huh?" "Did quick work on them, that's for sure." Now that the fighting was over, Damian wanted to ask Blake more questions, seeing as he still had no idea what he was going to do after they got out of space. "So, what exactly are the plans for me? We head to the Missouri but then what?" "Well, that's where I haven't quite figured things out yet. I might have you crawl back into the smugglers hold to hide you from any passing patrols and contact Keegan and Logan." Damian raised a single eyebrow, "why do I need to contact them?" Blake activated his cruise engines once more and the ship accelerated to cruise speed. "Have you guys been in contact with each other in the last year?" Blake asked once the ship speed was constant and they were able to speak again. "Yeah… we," he paused when he thought of Clayton, who was still possibly dead. "We were in the bar on Manhattan a few days ago celebrating the end of the week." Blake shook his head and mumbled something to himself. The Missouri was less than 20 km out. "That's a huge problem for them as well. The Navy already has its own issues with Clayton being taken by unknown contacts so he's not in any extra danger. Keegan and Logan need to go with you though. If word gets out that you escaped the Mitchell, they will detain and torture everyone that surveillance has caught you with." "Why though?" "Same as in any other case, they want to get information on the criminal-you-so that they can find your whereabouts." The Missouri was now within ten kilometers. Booth quickly shooed Damian back into the smuggler hold ("After all this, getting discovered by the Missouri is the last thing we need on our plate.") While waiting on the last leg of the journey in isolation, Damian took time to do some deep thinking.** ** _If what he said is true and I'm a wanted man, does that mean that Clayton will be wanted by both Liberty and Kusari. I mean, I know that he didn't think so but there's always that possibility._** **Another thing caught his attention.** ** _Blake never told me about the organization that he was in. Just tried his best to describe them without giving too much away. Is he trying to hide something? So, he works with people against the war effort, but he doesn't like to be called a hippie. So, works for…_** **he couldn't even begin to imagine who they were.** ** _Whatever the case, he hasn't turned me in to the Navy yet and he did come to drag me out of that cell. Probably would be a good idea if I went with whatever idea he has and contact Keegan and Logan._** **"Incoming ship," he heard the Missouri hailing Blake,** ** _this better fucking work._** **"This is the Missouri, please identify yourself." "This is Navy Patrol Gold 6 returning from our route in Zone 21. Sending ID data now." After a longer than normal pause, the dreadnought came alive again. "Ehh, roger Gold 6, priority clearance has been granted to you, proceed to the docking bay."**

 **When they had reached the hangar, Damian heard footsteps as Blake came back again and opened the hatch. "Okay here's the plan, I'm going to head out and finish a couple things before signing off. I need you to contact Keegan and Logan. Make sure they get here as fast as they can and have them meet us on the ship. After I finish up my work, I'll check the hangar and see if I can't find your ship again. I'm trusting you to stay put and to brief them on what happened. Now when I get back, I'll inform you guys on what you all need to do next. It'll most likely involve a sort of escape from liberty space for you guys into friendly territory. Hey, you okay?" Damian was looking at Blake, but his eyes were glazed as if he were in a deep trance. With a shake of the head and quick couple blinks, he came back to reality. "I've been thinking in here and well, it's making me wonder... What do you think is going to happen to Clayton?" "If you're asking who his captives are or what they plan on doing with him, I have no idea," Blake said. "It would be much clearer if I knew what he did at Willard. Anyone I've tried to get in contact with has either been busy or was killed in the attack." A few moments of silence followed the last sentence until Blake broke it. "That's something I want to know how to do." "What's that?" Damian had asked, finally coming out of the hold. "How in the hell did just a few men take down an entire secret military research station. How did they get through the Navy patrols, through the guards inside the station, through the research labs filled with scientists that should have had some sort of security with them? It makes no sense that a "couple people" could force their way into that kind of security, kill anyone in their way, take their target, and get away cleanly." Damian just sat there thinking. With a quick gasp of realization, he thought of a possibility. "Maybe they had people on the inside as well. I mean you, with the help of a few others, managed to sabotage and break me out of an arguably more secure area." "So, in that case, these guys know people inside the Navy and or the LSF." Blake uttered nearly too soft to hear. Damian leaned in, eager to see what sort of conclusions his friend could come up with. With a quick snap of the head, Blake seemed to switch gears instantly. "We can figure this out another time. You need to get the other two over here. I'll get in contact with Rodgers and tell him to meet us here for a quick briefing. He'll want to know what you guys will be doing and he's one of the few men I can trust around here anymore." "Alright man, sure thing." Damian looked up his contacts list to find where Logan and Keegan were. Just as he predicted, his list showed Logan on Planet Pittsburgh with his comm online. After scrolling through a few more times, he still couldn't find Keegan.** ** _Guess Logan will have to do then. I can have him get to Keegan._** ** _Alright, time to see if I can convince these guys to come with me for their own safety._**


	9. Chapter 8: Rendezvous

**(from chapter 6. Present day, Planet Pittsburgh)**

 **Things were really shaking up across the colonies. That's the one thing Logan could deduce as he walked away from his ship on Planet Pittsburgh. Between the sudden tension between Liberty and Kusari, the hostility of the individual Liberty companies (looking at his own especially), the strange occurrences with the odd man Keegan described and the odd message from Damian really made things sit funny with him. Despite the urgency from Damian, Logan decided to take a sort of slow-hurry and went into the bar to grab a drink before he took off. Upon walking through the main door of the bar he stopped. He was surprised to see that what used to be a beat-up bar was now a crime scene; the room filled with a scattered crowd. Behind the bar, two Police officers were asking the bartender questions as to what had happened. Near the table at the far wall, Cryer workers were busy moving covered bodies to hover stretchers. Several regular-looking patrons to the bar seemed to be giving whatever information they had on the incident to another pair of Liberty Police officials.** ** _So, this must be the damage Keegan's 'friend' caused. Quite a feat for just a single man if you ask me._** **Nobody asked him though. In fact, Logan strode past the officers and patrons right up to the bar, where it looked like the bartender had just gotten finished with what he had to give. Before he even hinted at the question, the bartender answered him. "Look, I'll just go ahead and tell you what happened since you obviously want to know. A guy with a DSE jumpsuit was sitting right there." He nodded his was towards a table about 20 feet away. He was a rather short man with a large salt and peppered beard. He attempted to look professional by wearing a tuxedo, but it was outweighed by his gut, which hung over his waist a good several inches. He spoke in a gruff and impatient tone, as if he already told the story a hundred times. He had a rag in his hand at this point and was now washing glasses as he talked to Logan. "He had ordered the usual liberty ale. Nothing remotely special about that choice as you well know. He had sat there for maybe two minutes before a group of guys walked in." "A group of guys walked into a bar? Doesn't sound so special to me." Logan snarked with a devilish grin. The bartender didn't even bother returning him a look. "These guys were different. I knew that the moment they stepped foot in here, things were going to get bad." He had momentarily stopped his dishwashing as he recalled what exactly happened. "One of them, I assume the leader of the group, had an odd walk and mumbled to himself. He reminded me of the type that should have been locked up in an asylum. Of course, I was told he was a worker for one of the big guys around here, so I guess that didn't really matter. Nevertheless, he freaked me out." He continued to wipe off the sludgy dishes and sat in silence for what seemed to be forever. "And? What exactly happened leading up to the people getting killed?" The bartender sighed as he put his rag down again. "Bear with me mate okay? Lot has happened in the past few hours." He grabbed a bottle, poured himself a drink, and downed it in one swallow before continuing. "As I was saying, he freaked me the fuck out. He and his cronies walked over to the table where the DSE guy was sitting. I didn't quite catch what was going on, they were just too far away for me to hear. Before I knew it, the insane one walked away and that short man got up from the table and started attacking the others. He fought well for having the odds against him. He ended up knocking one through that table there." He pointed at a table that was smashed through near the center of the room. "One of them managed to get behind him though and knocked him unconscious with a stun baton. One of those unfolding ones." He poured another drink and offered it to Logan, who nodded his head as he took it. "So," he began, "the short guy didn't kill anyone? Then how do you explain the bodies?" The man just shook his head while he grinned. As if he were about to mention some sort of miraculous event that transpired. "One of the patrons that sat at a different table got up and walked over to where the action happened. He's a regular in here, has been for years. So, I almost told him to stay back and out of the fight for his safety; he's a middle-aged guy at this point after all. When he started to get going though, I knew I was wise in letting him be. Before I could even call the LPI (Liberty Police Inc.) he had the two that were left on the ground dead. Whether he meant to kill them I'm not exactly sure. After the fighting got wrapped up, he came over to the bar and overcompensated me for the damages. He then hoisted the small guy onto his shoulders and walked out." Logan sat intently the entire time, eager to get what knowledge he could about the man that had helped his friend. "Could you give me a description of him? Maybe a name?" At that point, the bartender gave him a look of discontent and shook his head. "If you're not a part of a sort of law enforcement, I can't give no personal details. You want another drink for the road?" The bartender shoved another shot glass towards him, clearly done with the conversation. Logan pulled out his wallet to pay for the drink but was turned down before he could get his credits. "Nah man, I'm not worried about money now." He glanced at Logan's wallet though and noticed his I.D. card. "That your name?" Logan gave him a look while raising a single eyebrow. "No, I carry other peoples' I.D. with me as souvenirs after I kill them and hide their bodies." The bartender ignored the snide comment and leaned in over the bar close to Logan. His voice just above a whisper, not nearly as shaky as before. "Since you are who you say you are, I have a message for you, anonymous source of course. You are to keep an eye out for Mr. Springer for your own safety." "Pardon?" Logan wasn't quite sure he had heard right. Why on earth would Springer come after him. He wasn't even involved with what had went down here. It honestly made no sense to him. The bartender continued in his hushed tone. "With your buddy being the short guy, I have sources," He quickly said when Logan tried to interject. "Anyway, with Keegan being your friend, Blackburn will most likely be after you as well. Take my advice and plan to get the hell out of dodge as fast as you can. The farther away, the better." Logan just got up, paid the man despite protest, and walked out of the bar in a rather brisk pace. His head swimming with no fish to find.**

 **When he got out to the launch pad, he started to get a headache and while going through his pre-launch checks, it got progressively worse.** ** _Did that guy put something in my drink, or am I just panicking?_** **It had been a long time since he has lost control of his wits due to stress. Nearly too long for him to remember. Though he couldn't recall why exactly, he had the faint yet distinct memory of him throwing a chair across his elementary school classroom with the intent of hitting someone,** ** _Keegan, right? Man, what a time to be alive that was._** **Nevertheless, even though he had maintained his mental stability, it didn't really help him in his current situation; his head felt like it was splitting itself apart with atomic repercussions. Voices started to play inside his head like ghostly whispers as he sat clutching his head. "** ** _We need you Mr. Johnson... it is your turn to save our home..."_** **Just as quickly as it happened, the pain in his head subsided and the whispers left. "Logan, where the hell are you at? It's 25 minutes past the scheduled meeting time." Keegan's voice echoed through his ships transmitter. "Uh... yeah... Baltimore, right? Yeah, I'll be there in about 5 minutes." "Alrighty then, see you then." With a beep, his voice left, leaving Logan's ship quiet and void. He sat back in his chair, blinked a few times, and sat back up to begin launching his ship.**

 **The space around Pittsburgh was a boggled down mess in terms of docking; signifying yet again another end of the day as transports lined the Mooring Fixture, waiting to trade their goods with the planet's dealer. Though his head did stop hurting, Logan still felt in a daze because of the sudden jolt. He sat back as his ship idly wandered towards the trade lane. He was so out of it in fact, that he ran through the trade lane without docking and had to take a double-back around and dock again. By the time he even managed to get to the Fort Busch/Baltimore Shipyard area, he found himself focusing on breathing just to ease his mind. "Yo, what's up man?" Keegan's voice echoed again on his transmitter. "I got you spotted on my radar. Going to get a few things and come out to meet you." "Roger that…" he still felt distant, but he was aware enough to not draw the suspicion of Keegan through his voice. For about five minutes he waited outside the docking ports of the shipyard. The area was, just like the Pittsburgh area, business as per usual. A Cryer transport-most likely loaded with medical supplies- was mooring at Fort Busch, its escort ships docking at the ports. A police patrol was flying in repeated waypoints around the main airspace of the two stations, waiting for some action most likely. Another patrol proceeded to dock with the police station, chatter of a busy day leaked into the chat channel to Logan. He noticed none of this though as what preceded his arrival still flooded his train of thought.** ** _Springer is after me? How the hell did he find out that I'm a friend of Keegan's? How the hell did the bartender know that? So, if Springer is going to be after me and Keegan, does that mean that he's got dibs on everyone that we hang out with? Does that mean that Damian and Clayton will also be targets?_** **Another thought hit him right then.** ** _Does that mean that Keegan was right about the DSE? Oh man, they are a corrupt, war-mongering company. I bet that Blackburn and his cronies are the ones trying to break the colonies into all-out war for their own personal gain. Wait…_** **he came to a stop in his thought processes.** ** _What kind of gain would breaking down humanity at its core have for guys like Blackburn?_** **Before he could sit and dwell on this question, Keegan came out of docking port 2 of Baltimore.**

 **"Yo man, you ready?" Logan managed to snap back to his senses just enough to greet his friend. "Well I mean, I was ready for about twenty minutes. Where were you at?" It wasn't a difficult question, it just had no easy answer in this specific case. "Well I uh, went to see if I could find some more details about what had happened between you and Riles." He figured he would lie a bit. He didn't want to tell him about the voices or the major headaches that bugged him afterwards. That would be just one more thing he would have to worry about. Instead, he just decided to reveal as little as possible through vague descriptions. After all, his original intent with heading into the bar was to grab a few quick drinks to ease the blow of the news he would most likely receive from Damian. It was quite often that he only showed up to hang out with Logan, Keegan, and Clayton when things were looking good or bad. Judging by a few key words, need being the big one, Logan just assumed the worst. "I told you what I knew happened. There wasn't really a need to go and investigate further man." "Well sure there was. You only knew part of what happened. Knocked out remember? Anyway, there was a few minor details, but I didn't get anything new on the "Michael" guy." Keegan gave an audible sigh that picked up through his communicator. "Dude, you overthought this. It's surprising you went to this effort to try and find out about him. But honestly, what were you expecting to find. The guy has every characteristic of being a ghost." "A ghost? No. A spook of some sort? Most likely. I did manage to find out some other news though." Logan absent-mindedly steered his ship to the left to line up with the trade lane to the Missouri. "Oh yeah, and what might that be?" Keegan asked as the ships entered cruise speed. "Well, apparently somebody, I'm personally thinking Blackburn, sent or told mister crazy Springer that hunting and killing you and everyone you're associated with is not only permitted, but rewarded. Bartender told me on Pittsburgh that Riles is going to keep coming after us so long as we're still in Liberty space. The kill order still on, mind you." Keegan just sighed, defeated. "This is all my fault. I should've never went to him in the first place. This is all happening because I confronted Blackburn you do know that right?" "Well, yes and no." "What do you mean?" Keegan asked as they entered the trade lane. When they hit the stable 2500 km/hr., Logan continued. "What I'm saying is that yes, confronting him about it put us in this mess but eventually, someone else would have had the same idea. We're only being hunted because you were right. Didn't you feel like you struck a nerve of some sort when you were in there questioning him?" "I felt like I took a step over the line by the time it was over. That's all I know." "And that," Logan started, "is exactly why we need to be on our toes and to keep up what we're doing. I'm sure once we tell Damian and Clayton what's going on, they'll be able to think of a solution. To be honest, if we're in space, I don't think we'll have any need to fear Riles and his piloting abilities." He heard another audible sigh from Keegan. "Don't you get it? He's got the order, but he's also got people to carry it out. He doesn't HAVE to fly in space to come get us. He's Blackburn's cockmuppet with an unlimited signing bonus to hand out to anyone who wants to join his cause. He could hire the most daring and ruthless criminals to come after us and we would be none the wiser." They were coming up on the Battleship, both speechless for the last 10k of the trip. "Well look at it this way," Logan finally broke the silence, "all we have to do is stay in a public area so that we have the possible aid of other ships should things get shifty." "Again man, that's a bit flawed. A little bit of money goes a long way today. Besides, most of the people wouldn't take a side and just see the scrap as a personal issue. You've seen plenty of those types of scraps, we would just be another uncounted statistic if it came to that." Now Logan stayed quiet. He wanted to keep prying for more about the odd man, wanted to tell Keegan more about what had happened on Pittsburgh, wanted to tell him of the voices. As it stood however, Keegan addressed the battleship and had sent their ID information over already. With a brief check, the controller let them proceed to the single docking port. "Well," Keegan started again after seeing that Logan was more comfortable remaining quiet, "let's get to it then, shall we?"**

 **When they got situated in the landing bay, Logan called out to Damian again to try and get specifics on where they were supposed to meet. "You guys are in the Hawks, right? Okay," Damian paused for a second trying to figure something out. "Aha I got it." Logan heard a hybrid noise between a beep and a buzz sound off as Damian fiddled with some settings. "There we go, now we're in a private voice channel. Keegan, if you're there turn on your comms." After a little bit of static, a "roger" came from Keegan's ship. "Okay…okay…" Damian was back thinking again. Logan however was not very amused. "Are you going to tell us the reason why you called us out here or what? We've got something to share as well here. Where's Clayton at anyway? I thought you guys said you would message him." "Logan shush," it was Blake Booth's voice that rang out through the voice channel now. Logan couldn't remember the last time that he talked to him. He sounded… tired? Yeah that was it, tired with a sense of defeat surrounding his tone. "The reason that we called** ** _you_** **guys here and not Clayton is because of the current situation." "Huh? What's that supposed to mean?" Keegan asked. Blake's voice rang off again. "Look, I'm not sure how to put this in any sort of easy way but… Clayton was… taken away…" A silence settled between the four of them as the news sank in.** ** _Clayton… taken away._** **The words echoed in Logan's head again and again. "What do you mean? Taken away? How does a 25-year-old man get taken away?" Keegan's voice was getting rougher and rougher as the time for them to say it was all a joke kept slipping away. "Well, there was a sudden attack at Willard Research Station. Unknown ships of an unknown number and of an unknown faction directly shut down the station's electrical systems using an EMP device if some kind." "There was a similar attack on New Ithaca that I was involved in," Damian picked up, "I'm not going into much detail, but the station is gone, and I've been accused of being a part of it. From what we've gathered while you guys were on your way, they both seem to have been executed similarly. Although the ships I fought off before the base was destroyed were skilled, that's all I could tell of them. I have never seen these guys around before and the database shows no sign of an organization that wields that kind of ship." "Personal suspicion has led me to believe that they are somehow related to Kusari or an ally of Kusari. Other than that, we are total blind in trying to figure out who these people are." Blake wrapped up. "Speaking of Kusari," Keegan was asking now. "How close are we to an all-out war?" Blake just sighed. He sounded different from the last time Logan had talked to him. The young Cadet Blake was always an attentive, prideful, and audacious character to hang around with. He was usually quiet but once he got going, there was no turning back. This Blake seemed to have aged, as if all the youth had been sucked out of him in just a matter of months. "Liberty is taking action, moving a good-sized portion of their fleet into the Bering system. They seem to be on their way to try and negotiate a foothold in Rheinland space. My only guess is that they want to use the Rheinland systems as a launching location into the Sigmas, where a possible flank could be done." "So, they think that Kusari is behind the attacks then?" Keegan continued. "Well," Blake thought of how to explain it to him. "While they can't prove it, that would be what it seems yes. There's the incentive that the arms race broke into something else thanks to a bit of name calling, threats, and now as we see, movement of fleets into otherwise neutral space. "Suddenly, as if someone turned on a light bulb, Logan came to a realization. "When was the last time Rheinland let ANY military ship that wasn't their own into their territory?" "There has never been, nor will there ever be such a time for that to happen." Blake answered. "It's more important we do everything we can to stop this." "Wait what?" This time it was Damian with a befuddled sound in his voice. Apparently, Blake didn't tell** ** _him_** **everything either.**

 **"You can't be fucking serious here Booth. It's the Liberty Navy against… US! They have dreadnoughts, cruisers, fighters, torpedoes, sabotage units, and God knows what else. I mean seriously, what in the fuck are we going to be able to do to stop these guys?" Damian sounded ticked. Logan decided to let this one burn for a bit before saying anything else. Keegan seemed to be on the same page with him as he stayed mute as well. "See, I knew that you wouldn't have listened or taken me seriously if I told you about this earlier. It's why I waited for them to get here too." Logan felt slightly insulted as Blake practically spat out the word** ** _them._** **"Just listen to the plan I have here. It's not just us working on this. I've got people all around the sector working to stop this war." "Yeah right, tell me something, are these people any good outside of one-man rescue operations? If not, then I have no clue on how you're"— "WE'RE"— "okay whatever,** ** _we're_** **going to stop an all-out war from going on." "That's why I'm going to tell you what's going to happen. Now just sit there while I fill you all in okay?" When it seemed like the bickering had stopped, Logan activated his voice module again. "Aright then Booth, what's the plan?"**

 **It wasn't normal for people to stay in their ships for so long when they docked into a hangar or landing pad. A typical pilot gets tired of flying to the point where the only thing they can think of is getting their feet on solid ground. So, the fact that three ships had been sitting in a hangar for roughly an hour without suspicion or investigation led Logan to believe that maybe Blake did in fact, have some control over the situation. He could also tell that he put some thought into what he planned for his group. "From what we currently know and from what we can also assume, Clayton Haug, ex-Willard scientist of unknown job description, was taken from his place of work shortly before an attack on New Ithaca left over 2000 people dead and a newly built station destroyed. We have no evidence on who the perpetrators were, but we can assume that they were most likely associated with Kusari in some way." "Didn't you just say that we can't be certain of anything regarding that specific piece of information?" Keegan asked. "Nothing can be set in stone, but I'm assuming because it's the most likely causation for the time being. The Navy can't pin it on them, but I'm allowed to have my own opinions. Once I find more information on what Clayton did I'll be able to connect a few more dots. Unless there's still something that you guys aren't telling me, I can't do that right now." As much as he wanted to, Logan couldn't say anything about Clayton's job. It was treated as a highly classified piece of information. So high up apparently, that even naval officers weren't allowed to consider it. "Nah," Logan confirmed, "he hasn't been allowed to tell anybody." "So, I'll consider it to see if I can dig up a reason for the sudden kidnapping of our friend. If nothing else, it should point us in the right direction of suspects." "Since we are all here, I got something to say as well." Keegan described what had happened to him on Pittsburgh. Everything from the conversation with Blackburn up to the fight with Riles' cronies and topped off with the rescue by the "Michael" character. Logan even popped in and mentioned that Riles seemed to be gunning after them now if the rumors he heard were in fact, true. "Aha!" Booth exclaimed. "That's perfect. He's going to be tracking you, so it gives you all a reason for leaving Liberty. It also means that because you can't stay here, you guys can get in contact with a colleague of mine." "But what about you?" Damian asked. "If what Logan said is true and Springer is after anyone associated with Keegan, it means that he's going to be after you as well." "I'll take my chances. Besides, I think Blackburn and Smith are in on this together. So long as my cover doesn't get blown, I should be okay. My agency, if you want to call it that, isn't exactly friends with the higher ups on either side right now." "You mentioned a colleague," Keegan started, "what kind of colleague is we talking about here?" "In glad you asked." Blake sounded downright delighted to talk about this. As if he were trying to show off his secret agent skills by describing an acquaintance. Logan just shook his head. This was definitely not the same Blake Booth they had known since grade school. "A rebel group that had been a common foe in Kusari for decades is still at it. Their main goal is to overthrow the current Kusari government and establish a monarchy. There have been some modifications to their current goals though. One is to stop the war. Even though it would benefit their uprising, nation goes to war and gets left open for an overthrowing of the head of establishment, they hate foreigners more than their main Kusari opposition. Now this," he pulled up a hologram that displayed throughout the three ships. It was a star system chart of the entire Sirius Sector. Shining brightly to the point of blindness, Logan had to modify his ship power settings to bring it back down to a visible light level. "Sorry about that. Anyway, this is where you guys need go to rendezvous with him and his men." A circle popped up around a system deep in Kusari territory labeled as "Chugoku". "Blake…" Damian sounded petrified. "Are you telling me that your 'contact' is in the middle of the Blood Dragon home world?" Blake just smiled. "He's not just in the middle of the system, he's their ace pilot. Quite frankly, he would put all of you to shame. I wouldn't make him angry if I were you." "Blake…" It was Logan's turn again to be speechless. "The stories I've heard about the Blood Dragons. About the uprising, the sabotaging of the Kusari government, the wars that they have intervened in… what makes you think they'll trust us in the same way your man trusts you?" Blake just sighed. "Good lord you guys are so paranoid." "I'm being told that we have a mentally unstable maniac on our tail with a kill order, the colonies are at each other's throats with a war becoming more likely than not, one of my best friends was beaten to shit"—"hey, I did just fine"— "another one was convicted by his own nation of killing his wingman and destroying a relic of the past, and now you're telling me that I'm about to fly head first into Kusari space only to, if I'm not killed by the Naval Forces first, play nice with one of the deadliest assassin /criminal organizations in Sirius with nothing else to help me besides a 'good word'? Well pardon me for being a tad bit paranoid but things have been falling the fuck apart as of late and I'm a bit hesitant to take on this job." "Logan listen," Keegan tried to calm him down. "You want to get Clayton back, I get that. We all do but sitting here in Liberty with that psycho on the loose isn't going to get us anywhere besides in a hole on Manhattan." Logan let out a huff. Keegan pressed, "listen, under ideal circumstances we all want to do something different here. Running straight away from home doesn't sound too good to me either. I mean look at me, I'm a home bound kid… but so was Clayton. More so than anyone of us. He's out there somewhere, in hostile territory, he's hoping someone will get his ass out of whatever hell hole those probable Kusari bastards put him in. Now after telling us all this, after the many years we've all been together, why would Blake put a plan into place that would more likely than not get us killed? This is the safest bet we have whether we stay or go. If nothing else, do it for your friends; the ones your protecting and the ones you're going to be saving." Logan didn't know what to say to Keegan. It was mostly shock, he never thought of Keegan to be the one to step up and take the pep-talk, much less taking that pep-** ** _speech._** **He creased his eyebrows, let out a sigh, and finally caved in. "Fine. If it's our only other option. How are we going to get to Chugoku, Booth?"**

 **"** **Okay, here what I got laid out. Since there's five of you guys going—I can't come along because I still must keep things stable here—my plan goes kind of like this: you all can either hop into your own ships, Damian I can get you cover so you can head to your own, and leave the system with Alice and another in a group of five separate ships. This method I would just like to say is technically the safest way as you'll have more firepower going forward but keep in mind that it's an odd combination of ships that will most likely get you all noticed more often no matter where you go. Another possibility would be for Keegan and Logan to split up between Damian's and Alice's Defenders and help them manage should things get in a firefight. The other person will have their own freighter, so this combination will give you a Liberty-freighter-convoy look. It'll get you guys through Bretonia okay, but I recommend buying different ships once you all hit that area as safety precautions for foreign affairs. Option number three involves Damian and Alice piling into Keegan and Logan's hawks, giving your ships the appearance of a civilian convoy. While this will probably get you in the least amount of trouble, the lack of turrets and weaponry on these ships will mean that you two won't be very helpful to Keegan and Logan whilst on their ships. It'll also most likely mean that any conflict you get into will be a slight bit more difficult. Now no matter what path you take in terms of ships, I recommend taking the flight route through Bretonia. With Liberty stepping up their patrols nearer and nearer to Rheinland territory, any ships coming from here are going to be treated as possible threats to society over there. Kusari would be a daring and most likely unexpected venture but it means you're heading through one of the lungs of the arms race. That means military and police fighters up the wazoo and a near inescapable death trap if you're spotted, which is also highly likely. Going through Bretonia also means I can show you a sort of 'back way' means of getting out of Liberty space faster. We just need to be able to get to the Badlands undetected to take this path. No matter which path you pick, you'll have to get into Kusari because Chugoku lies on the very northern tip of the colony. Now we just have to think about getting there…" He took a few seconds to think in silence before figuring out a solution. "Here we go," he pulled up a star chart that displayed on everyone's ship and marked several key points. "While the jump gates are heavily guarded by the Kusari Naval Forces, the jump** ** _holes_** **will have minimal to no personnel guarding them. That is where you guys will take advantage. Now the journey will be a long and difficult one, but if you figure out a way to navigates using only jump holes, you can make it. Now as for those hostile ships who will want to take you out of flight, I'm having someone equip all your ships with Advanced Countermeasures. These will hopefully stop any cruise disruptor missile from hitting your engines. Now that we got those topics out of the way, are there any other questions that you guys need answered?" Logan adjusted himself in his seat. He wasn't always too opposed to sitting, they were in spaceships all the time after all, but he couldn't seem to get himself comfortable in this situation. "Okay guys it's time to make the decision. I don't care what you pick so long as you don't get caught. Oh, by the way, in addition to the local security forces, I have a feeling that Springer will find a way to get the Bounty Hunters involved with this as well" (** ** _Fuck)_** **"so be extra careful no matter where you're at." "Quick question," Damian asked. "Who's the fifth person?" "Who do you think Pohlman?" Logan started to think about the question himself. Meanwhile, the other two continued to go off. "She's not coming along Blake. She's safer he—" "Have you been listening to anything Keegan and Logan have been saying? If there's a problem going on involving the DSE hunting down defects and their friends, then she isn't any safer here than she is with you." Logan thought he knew who they were talking about but couldn't confirm it quite yet. "You're telling me you can't keep her safe? You can't keep your own family safe?" Getting warmer. "Not forever, my current positions put me in a difficult spot to be a personal bodyguard for anyone. Besides, she's your fiancée; if you truly love my cousin then you'll let her go with you." Bingo. "Courtney is NOT coming along. That's final." Logan heard a hard fist hit the dash of Blake's ship as Damian made his final point. "Man, just listen to me. I don't want anyone to get compromised either. However, the reality is she's much safer with you than she is staying here. You've already got Clayton to worry about, the last thing you need to let go of is the love of your life." A long pause followed Blake's last sentence. For the longest time, it seemed that nobody wanted to make any sort of decision. Logan was especially uncomfortable, that he knew for sure. The outbursts from Pohlman just prior opened to a spot of tension that nobody wanted to be involved in. The spotlight was on Damian of course but at this point Logan almost made the decision for him. With another audible smack on the dash of the ship followed by a heavy sigh, Damian finally said, "Fine, she comes along." "Then it's settled. The five of you will head over to Freeport 4, get in touch with Ruby Ranger, and proceed to Chugoku. Saddle up then!"**


	10. Chapter 9: Foreign Traders

**As their ships were equipped with the finest Countermeasures (Blake gave the equipment dealer an extra 7,500 credits for each Countermeasure Dropper), there were several emotions running through Keegan's head. Anger, sadness, stress… okay that last one wasn't technically an emotion, but he was feeling every bit of it. Damian was treating the entire situation as if much of it was overhyped. He was either trying to get things done the easy way or was trying to forget key components of the problem in the first place. Case in point, the Springer situation; he wanted to have his fiancé stay in Liberty with the current situation. Even after hearing his friend's personal experience, even after being told that EVERYONE CLOSE TO HIM would be hunted and taken either prisoner or executed. How big of a canvas did Keegan need to use to paint the picture for his friend? Did he have to try and explain in an elaborate way how every action in the last 27 hours involving Liberty politics was tied back to Blackburn? Blackburn. What a slimy piece of garbage he turned out to be. He didn't want to stereotype all corporate suits into the same category as him, but he was the only one he had even encountered. The words he said to Keegan as he was walking out of his office still resonated with him…** ** _what did he mean by "end you"? Is he trying to make up on that end of the deal? Was he trying to use Springer as a weapon to mop me up or is Springer acting alone._** **They did conclude that he had to be operating under Blackburn, but it was honestly quite hard to tell. His thoughts were disrupted as the voice channel came back alive, echoing through his still empty ship sitting in the hangar on the Missouri. "Okay, I don't know about you guys, but I would feel much safer if we could get everyone their own ship. Boothy, is there any way I can get to my ship without raising suspicion?" "Um, let me see if I can contact Stevens to mess with the cameras." Keegan heard the noise of typing bleed through the voice channel as Blake worked. "What do you think?" Logan's voice traveled over Blake's typing, yet nobody seemed to notice besides Keegan. "About?" Keegan wasn't quite sure what the question was, though now he deduced that Logan was talking to him through a private channel. "Oh, you know, whatever, the entire situation going on right now. Just wondering what you think about it." That still wasn't quite clear. "Well, I think that Blake has the right mindset on getting us out of here. Riles is a bit insane, but he was quite calm for his usual temperament. I've heard stories of him wanting to finish people off himself more often than leaving them for his henchmen. I think he's planning something." "Do you think that he's planning on us leaving the system in hopes for an attack on us?" Keegan thought about this for a bit before responding. "I mean, it's quite possible. I don't know if he's wanting to go that far though. He's always been about efficiency in his methods. Wanting to lure us out into neutral space just to have a CHANCE at finishing us off seems kind of backwards in his usual method of thinking." "Maybe it's just Blackburn giving him orders," Logan summed up. "I mean I'm not sure why he's not letting Riles do his own thing but let's just take this as an advantage for us and make use of it."**

 **"Bingo! Alright Pohlman, the cameras are down... wait, oh no no no." Blake's voiced started confident but turned into a panicked version of itself just as quickly. "The hack wasn't clean. Stevens you idiot... they've spotted us. A patrol is on their way to the hangar bay right now!" "I'm getting out right now." Keegan started to get up from his chair, "No you're not, get ready to launch your ship. As soon as Damian can get to his ship we're all leaving." "But Blake, what about-" "KEEGAN, STAY!" "Don't worry," Damian assured, "I'll just run for it." With that, Blake's on-ramp come down from the bottom of his ship and Keegan saw Damian sprint towards the other side of the bay.** ** _Well, there's no alarms yet, so that must mean that they don't know for certain who's here. I guess things could be worse._** **Just as he thought about this, alarms sounded off as a squad of Navy soldiers equipped with side arms came through on Keegan's far left, chasing Damian across Keegan's field of vision going right. He saw red lasers shoot across the bay and realized that they were firing at him. Having a specific laser whiz past his head, Damian dodged to his right behind another Defender.** ** _Well, I guess they know who we are now._** **Keegan quickly checked his ship for any hazards with it. At the same time, he hoped his heart out that Damian could get to his ship fast enough. He looked up through his cockpit again to find that Damian was closing in on his own ship, but was pinned behind and equipment rack with the Navy troopers closing in behind him. Keegan decided right then that he couldn't wait any longer. With a pick-up of his transmitter, he shouted. "POHLMAN, HIT THE DECK!" Without even considering a response and ignoring Blake's retaliation, Keegan focused his Flashpoints towards the group of bunched up troops. Apparently, they were unaware that any ship was occupied and didn't even see the fire coming as they were blasted to bits by the guns. Without looking back Damian picked himself back up and hopped up onto his cockpit and opened the hatch, not even bothering with trying to run up the on-ramp. The four of them fired up their engines and left the battleship, along with the pile of fleshy remains, behind them.**

 **"Hit your cruise engines, don't focus on an actual navigation target, and steer your ship towards the West Point trade lane." There was no retort, no questioning, no objections as Blake gave these quick and quiet orders across their shared communication channel. It was only a matter of time before everything on their radar turned red and started shooting at them. They took an odd maneuver compared to the typical ship flight pattern and lined up in what would have been single file if they weren't so spread out; Blake was nearly in the trade lane sequence already. Keegan assumed that he only waited so he could tell and show them what he meant. One by one they activated the lane jump sequence and proceeded to West Point. "So, what's the plan from here Blake?" Keegan asked as he entered the lane. "Are we going to go in here guns a blazing and punch our way into the Badlands?" "Well…" Blake sounded uneasy; clearly this put a damper in his otherwise foolproof plan. "Right now, I'm hoping that Stephens got the cameras again long enough for us to get clear. If that idiot tripped a security system on the battleship while hacking the cameras, it wouldn't surprise me that they came back up before Damian got onto his ship. So that would put Damian's face on camera, exposing it to any Liberty authority. It would also mean that a certain Hawk who happened to blast away a squadron of Navy troopers would have also been exposed on camera." Although they were in space, in their ships, and thousands of meters apart, Keegan felt as if all eyes were looking at him in that moment. "So, with that being said," Blake finally continued, "Right now we hope our ass off that West Point hasn't been alerted to our crimes yet. The only way for that to even be remotely possible is to hope that the cameras were down long enough, and that Keegan didn't miss a guy in hiding or something like that. If we end up making it past that damn place alive somehow, Rodgers and the women are already waiting for us by the hidden passage." They were roughly 40 Km away from West Point now. Keegan wanted to speak up and defend himself for what he did back at the hangar, but he also knew that the only thing it would do is cause more disruption. So, they sat there in the awkward silence for a few more seconds before they passed through the second to last ring and began the deactivation sequence, slowing down as they approached the final ring before the base. "Get ready," warned Blake, "if things are red, use your thrusters and fly like hell to get to the trade lane. If green, well… stay calm and collected." "Yeah," Logan replied semi-sarcastically, "I think we have that much covered." Blake, being in the front of the group exited first. Damian followed with Keegan and Logan closer behind respectively. "So far so good, just keep going." The station looked exceptionally busy today. Several Navy patrols were flying in, out, and all around it. A couple of transports were moored at the station. After a quick scan, Keegan noticed that they were shipping small and medium side arms to the station for cadets to use for practice in inner planetary battle.** ** _Probably war, once the arms race gets out of hand and Blackburn single handedly screws over Liberty._** **He was kind of shocked that the President didn't put a stop to the construction of the jump gates.** ** _Is the president of Liberty in on this with the DSE and the other giants of Liberty? Or does he not know about Blackburn's true intentions with the setup._** **Blackburn did tell Keegan that the jump gates were for economic purposes, but were they? He had put so much effort and time into thinking about these few questions that he didn't notice that he was the last one at the trade lane to where New Ithaca once stood.** ** _Well at least West Point never got word about what happened at the Missouri._** **He performed a quick scan of the area just to be sure that he didn't jinx his chances of getting caught. Everything seemed okay, but he was really wasting precious time right now. He docked with the trade lane and immediately saw the objects on his radar turn red as he left them behind. G** ** _uess there's no going back now_** **. Word must have gotten out that things went down at the Missouri.** ** _Man, I can't wait to tell the guys that we're all wanted criminals. That'll make everyone's day I'm sure._**

 **In hindsight, things could have gone much worse for the gang trying to escape Liberty. When Keegan got to the end of the trade lane in the Badlands, the others immediately disrupted the trade lane and knocked the turrets off the ring to slow down any possible pursuers. "Alright," Blake said once the second and final turret was knocked off, "Rodgers and the girls are meeting us at the gate. It's an old back way that leads to the Magellan system. You guys will all head through and we'll seal the gate behind you. From there, head to Freeport 4 and find a man known as the 'Ruby Ranger' he'll give you guys a route from there all the way to Kusari space." They then took off into cruise speed and it gave Keegan a good amount of time to survey the environment. Although it wasn't a place that offered much to look at, Keegan was fascinated by the tall, dark-purple rocks in the hazy purple cloud. He was always fascinated by rocks and minerals and the Badlands offered a unique kind in an otherwise dangerous environment. Certain spots in the field were filled with radiation, other pockets were rumored to hold abandoned wrecks of a Bounty Hunter legend and a lost Navy patrol. Regardless of what was in the field, Liberty Rogues constantly patrolled the area. Keegan wondered if New Ithaca was destroyed by Rogues or if there was a whole new enemy. He quickly shook the thought from his head as he elaborated in it.** ** _Damian would have said if they were Rogues. He's been in fights with plenty of them to understand what their ships look like along with any flight patterns that the typical useless Rogue follows._** **Damian never really discussed the attack in much detail. There were obvious reasons for Keegan to see as to why, but he felt that even a little bit more information for all of them would do more good than harm. They made it to a clearing that showcased a bright glowing object that was much too small to be a star but otherwise could have been considered one. It looked like a giant white flame, with particles rising in a similar fashion. Keegan has asked what they were. "Oh yeah, you'll see those every now and again when you're traveling through here. They're known as the anomalies of the Badlands going through them isn't as deadly as going headfirst into a star or planet, but the radiation will still do quite a bit of damage to your ship." "Moral of the lesson," Logan chimed, "don't fly into the unknown object that looks like fire. Think you can do that?" Keegan could feel his cheeky grin from across the formation. "Yeah, that sounds like a good plan." They continued to fly through the Badlands in a rather peaceful sightseeing sort of way. Avoiding all the hazardous areas, they quickly made it to the jump gate to Magellan where Rodgers and the girls were awaiting them. "Were you guys followed?" Rodgers immediately asked. "Good to see you too." Blake responded. "No, we should be okay." "You sure about that? We heard word about what happened on the Missouri. It's all over the news reports. Keegan decided to chime in at that moment. "They turned hostile towards me as I entered the trade lane. West Point most likely saw me head this way." "That would've been nice to know before we made our way here. What the hell were you thinking?" There was a hint of rage in Blake's voice, even though it was for good reason, Keegan was taken aback. "Well I was going to tell you but forgot. I guess I thought that they wouldn't pursue us this far in, so it wasn't a big deal." "Rogers did you run any tests on the jump gate yet? Is this thing even safe?" Damian butted in (much to Keegan's relief) to change the subject and get the group back in control. "Yeah, it's an older model compared to the normal, but she seems good. The tests I ran showed that it was still stable enough for smaller ships. Just hold on tight for the ride because it'll be rougher than what you're used to."**

 **"So, who's going first? I don't have all day to wait on you. We have to get back to our designated areas before the Navy realizes we're gone." "But Blake, if the cameras saw you, doesn't that mean—" "That we can't go back…" Rodgers finished. Keegan knew that Blake was holding back the urge snap at him again. He could tell by the way he was acting now; passive aggressive to the rest of the group. "How are you guys going to make it back in one piece? Who is in charge once you guys are gone?" "Well Pohlman, today is your lucky day. Normally I would let the adults decide leadership matters but since you're so concerned, Rodgers and I are putting you in charge of this little exhibition. Isn't that a fantastic promotion?" "Okay whatever man, so we meet up with your guy on Freeport 4, right?" "Right, and he'll give you guys a path into Kusari through Bretonia using only jump holes. If you stay clear of military and criminal patrol routes you should be alright. Now come on already, we got to figure out where we're going to go once you all leave." "Couldn't you just come with us?" Courtney asked. "Too risky. The odds of any sort of convoy or regular patrol consisting of seven ships is astronomical. Besides, we'll be okay. I promise you." He added the last part when his cousin didn't sound amused. With that, the gate roared to life as it opened to expose the entrance to the system pathway within it. It glowed a sort of hue that reminded Keegan of Christmas lights; not exactly white, but not technically yellow either. It was a fascinating sight that always captivated Keegan in nearly every aspect. One by one they docked with the gate. Damian slipped right in, followed by Courtney, Alice, Logan, and a once again hesitant Keegan after a short order from Blake to move on with it. After they had gone through, the gate roared again as it shut behind them.**

 **To say that the ride to Magellan was a rough one compared to the usual jump gate was an understatement. When the ride was finally over, Keegan swore that he had moderate to severe whiplash in his neck. While he sat there rubbing it, the others began talking as they tried to figure out how to get to Freeport 4 in the most discrete way possible. Where they landed was a moderate cruise away from the station. Paler bits of rock saturated the light-blue hued field. Lightning flashes every now and then kept Keegan on edge in his seat. As for the others, they didn't seem to notice or care about where they were presently at. They kept trying to talk over one another and the conversation was quickly spiraling into chaos. "We need to take the trade lane to the station-" "and risk exposure to people who want us dead?" "Couldn't we just try and fly through open space? It's only about 30Km away, I'm sure we can make that flight." Keegan finally said after he thought his neck felt as good as he thought it could get. "You don't think we'll get caught with our pants down trying to cruise our way to the station?" Damian questioned. "I mean look around you, we're shielded by a huge cloud with asteroids inside of it." Keegan pointed before realizing they couldn't see him. "Have you never been here before?" Logan asked him in a concerned manner. He quickly followed up with, "The field you're talking about only covers about half of the distance. We'll be in wide-open space for most of the flight. Besides, who knows what kind of ambush is waiting for us at the end of the cloud." "Still a bit paranoid, are we?" Keegan snarked. "Refer to my statement on the Missouri." Logan said indifferently. "I'm still not sure why you're so relaxed suddenly. We already know that we're enemies of Kusari, now Liberty is after us. We're about ready to be sandwiched between hostile colonies not to mention our friend is somehow tied to the middle of all of this." Before he could continue, they both noticed the other three charging their cruise engines. "We're heading there right now, you two can argue all you want. Meet us on the station when your bicker-fest is over." Damian wasn't angry when he spoke to them about this. In fact, Keegan noticed that he was oddly cool. His voice almost sounded as solid as steel. Like Blake's when he was giving orders as they were leaving the Missouri. Quickly hushing themselves, Keegan and Logan charged their cruise engines and followed behind the others, not saying another word about the situation at hand. They flew in silence for about a minute before Damian ordered them to cut their engines. "See something?" Keegan couldn't see why they stopped. "Just at the edge of the cloud, looks like a cluster of ships." Keegan and Logan, still being far enough behind to not see, thrusted their ships to the same position with the others. Sure enough, about 16 ships sat grouped in pairs right before the edge of the cloud. "Are those Bounty Hunters?" Keegan asked as they peered through. "What the hell are they doing out here?" "If I had to guess, they're probably waiting for us." Damian concluded. After another moment of radio silence, Damian cane up with a few options. "You guys want to fight them or fly around them?" "Which option do you think is better oh leader?" Alice piped up, clearly enjoying the fact that such a big deal was made of the leadership role. A small asteroid bounced off her ship's shield as she started to laugh. "Dammit, this is serious. What do you guys think we should do?" "Well if you ask me, I say we fly around them. Think about it, outnumbered, outgunned, outmatched, there's not much more that we can be 'outed' in." "Yeah but Logan, do you really think we can fly around them without them spotting us? What if we run into another patrol on the way there anyway?" Damian argued. "Then we fight. Look I'm not trying to question you. You asked what we should do, and I gave my opinion, take it or leave it." Without any further discussion, he and the others engaged their cruise engines to steer past the Bounty Hunter ships. Although Keegan was nervous, he agreed with Logan: it was much safer to try and fly around instead of directly engaging. As they started to fly out of the cloud, Keegan noticed his radar went off. "Uh guys, I think we have company." Sure enough, whether they were the same ones or a separate platoon, Bounty Hunter ships surrounded them.** ** _White, okay that's not bad yet. Maybe we can negotiate._** **Keegan told himself as he checked their status. The white color indicated that they were neutral which relieved him somewhat. Even with this glimmer of hope, Keegan readied his weapons.**

 **"Unidentified ships, this is Bounty Hunters Red 6, cut your engines." "Something wrong folks?" Keegan could feel Damian's panic as well as his own mounting up inside. "You have your ID?" The head hunter spoke in an impatient tone. Keegan also thought he heard a sense of hunger, as if he knew who they were but was forced to take it slow. Like eating food politely instead of chowing it down as fast as he wanted to. "Of course, give me just one moment." Keegan knew that Damian was trying to buy time so that someone could do something, but the truth was, nobody knew what to do. Everyone else sat in awkward silence, waiting for Damian to send the ID data that would surely submit them to their doom. "We don't have all day. Hurry up, our patrol route is still up for another 6 waypoints." The impatience grew in the head's voice. "Waypoint? Weren't you guys sitting at the edge of the cloud?" Keegan put his face in his hands.** ** _Dammit Logan. You had one job, no not even. You just had to stay quiet and not be yourself._** **The hunter steered his ship in Logan's direction, adding somewhat of a menacing personality to it. "You knew this how exactly? Could you have been the same ships we saw in the field a few minutes ago? The same ships we decided to follow after they tried to steer around our ambush?"** ** _Well then, this is awesome!_** **"Send the ID data now or we will blow you out of space and scatter your remains in this field." After a few more moments of silence, the leader began talking again, slightly less annoyed now that he finally received what he had asked for. "Well well, looks like these are the guys we've been expecting. On a classified mission with primary clearance from the LSF itself. My oh my what a couple of big shots we have here." The other hunters started to laugh (and record it over their comma no less). Keegan was just struck completely dumbfounded. Did** ** _Blake really give us an LSF ID? What the actual fuck?_** **Everyone else seemed to be thinking the same thing.** ** _LSF ID heading into Kusari space, that's not a dead giveaway to a foreign group trying to stay stealthy. Let's go ahead and swap all our ships to Liberty vessels as well, we're already halfway there._** **"Listen, we know why you guys are really here. Our original assignment was to exterminate you guys right outside the jump gate. BUT-" he put emphasis on the word because Alice and Damian started their engines in preparation for battle. "someone paid a higher price to get you where you need to go. He's sitting on Freeport 4 now, we'll take you there if you want." Seeing as they weren't bits of space dust at this point of the conversation, it seemed only rational to join up with them. Flying in free space with their reputation as it was would seem foolish to even the best pilots, and it didn't take a genius to see that they, despite having good chemistry in fights, weren't even close to be the best pilots. "We're not pulling anything here I promise." The Hunter said as once again, Keegan and Logan appeared hesitant to follow. "Well," Logan started, "so long as you promise... sure, why the hell not?"**

 **They flew out of the haze and asteroid-filled area of the cloud and were now in open space. Damian and Courtney went to a private channel to talk away from everyone else. During their absence, Logan—much to her disdain—attempted to make a move on Alice, who switched her own communicator off to not be rude. "Does he do that kind of stuff often?" The lead Bounty Hunter asked Keegan. "More than you can ever imagine." The flight wasn't terribly long but Keegan wasn't one for silence. "So, what's your name?" "Pardon?" The head was caught off guard by such a question. "Your name. Mines Keegan." "Yeah, look I'm not one for friendships, piss off." "Okay then." They sat in silence again for another moment. Logan was still talking to Alice even though it was a one-sided conversation. Damian and Courtney stayed in radio silence and the rest of the Hunters were shooting the bull with each other. The only one that had his communicator on and was quiet was the head (and Keegan of course).** ** _Let's try a different approach then._** **"Who sent you guys down here?" "I'm not giving names, I just said that. If I had to guess, it's probably the same guy you're meeting with."** ** _No shit, I could have told him that. Why is it that these punks are sworn by secrecy while the ones I see around can't pipe it?_** **"Can you at least give a first name? We don't know who we're meeting." "Not my problem princess, I'm getting paid to keep you alive. Getting you to where** ** _you_** **want to go is outside my contract." Logan was still trying to talk to Alice. "Dude," one of the Hunters called, "she isn't going to go for it, shut up." Whether he heard them and didn't care or was completely oblivious, it didn't really matter. Keegan turned his head back to the front of his ships again. "A first name. Not of yours, just the one of our informant." When he completely ignored him, Keegan thought of something.** ** _These guys run off money, so…_** **Keegan opened his inventory HUD and immediately transferred 5,000 credits to the head. "What's this?" "A proposition, tell me some details on this guy we're meeting, and I'll give you more money." Keegan thought it was best to be general and my mention a specific amount. After all, he wasn't too rich so the less he mentioned the better. "Trying to bribe me eh? That usually wouldn't go down too well." "You're kidding right? What are you, a 'just' Bounty Hunter that won't accept money? What does it matter if it's a bribe or not? We both know that you really don't care." "That seems a bit of a harsh stereotype to throw around. Not every Hunter is a money-grabbing prick." "If it wasn't true at all, why is it a stereotype?" There was a long pause as he thought it over. "Alright, you got me." He finally admitted, "what exactly do you want?" "First off, I need a name. Who is the guy that paid you off?" "You want a name? Sure. Marcus Johnson, a guy who travels place to place and offers priceless information." Keegan's jaw dropped.** ** _No, there's no way._** **"Marcus…Johnson?!" He said it slow to make sure he understood what the head Hunter had said. "That's what I said. Why, you know him?" "Not sure, can you describe him for me?" "Yeah, if you give me more credits I'll tell yah anything you need to know if I know it." Keegan, really on a tight leash with money but desperately wanted to confirm his bias, transferred another 3,000 credits. "Okay let's see…" the head Hunter went deep into thought. The other Hunters were still bantering back and forth amongst one another. Keegan heard Alice threaten to knock Logan's shields off his ship if he didn't cease his approaches. Damian and Courtney were still in their own secure channel.** ** _Must've had a good chunk of catching up to do. Come to think of it, it has been an interesting several hours._** **Between the events on Pittsburgh, the news about Clayton, and their near-death experience on the Missouri, Keegan realized that he had yet to get any sleep since getting knocked out.** ** _That couldn't have been for more than a few hours either. Maybe I can convince the gang to stay and sleep a night._** **He was so lost in his thought of sleep that he nearly missed it when the head started talking again. "…skinny, kind of awkward I guess, white birthmark on the back of his head."** ** _Great…_** **"Yeah…" "Oh you know him?" Keegan wasn't sure about how he should handle this.** ** _These guys won't care, but Logan… what if he overhears._** **"Runt? You okay?" "Yeah, I know him. It's my buddy there, the one getting yelled at by the other girl, it's his brother." "So, I guess this will work out for you guys after all. You're all lucky the guy had money, you should thank him when you see him."** ** _Marcus? Money? Nobody in that family has money, that's why Marcus left and died. That's why Logan worked his ass off for the DSE. Wait, if he died then why is he… oh shit._** **Nothing good was going to come out of this that much Keegan knew. He sat in silence for the rest of the trip, not letting anyone know about the conversation between him and the head Hunter. When they got to Freeport 4 shortly after, he thanked the man again with his last 4,000 credits and watched as the large wing flew back into the cloud for another assignment. "Let's go guys I don't have all day." Damian spoke to the group for the first time all trip. "Dock with the station, we'll meet in the bar."**


	11. Chapter 10: Ruby Ranger

**Chapter 10: Ruby Ranger**

 ** _Clayton, what are we going to do? "Stay quiet, you'll give us all away." How many do you think are...? "Dead? Probably too many, it doesn't matter right now though, we have to make sure WE get out of here alive."... Clayton, they see us!_**

 **Clayton Haug awoke to find himself suspended via some sort of restraint device. Circular with holes for the arms and feet, it resembled the practicality of a cross or some chains against a wall.** ** _What the hell?_** **He struggled against the restraints but to no avail; they remained intact. As he started again, he felt a sharp pain in his leg. Specifically, it felt as if his knew was being ripped open. Ticked at himself for some reason, he decided to survey the room.** ** _Well, if I'm at Willard, I'm in some sort of chamber that they've never shown me before._** **The walls in the room were of the modern day: metallic blue with jutting supports spaced evenly coming at the room, which was square and about medium sized. He wiggled around and around to look behind him and noticed that twin blast doors were sealed shut about 10 meters away.** ** _Seems like a good spot I guess._** **He wanted to see what else was behind him, but it was like only the front half of the room was lit; the doorway was the only thing illuminating behind him. Clayton rolled his eyes at the odd placement and attempted to break free again. That's when he noticed the cameras; small circular objects that mirrored the room in their reflection spaced on all four corners of the ceiling. No sooner did he realize what they were did the doors opened to reveal a man in his early forties (at least that's what Clayton guessed) with a tall, slim figure and black hair with a mustache to match. "Ah, it's good to see that your awake. I was afraid that my men were too hard on you. How do you feel?" Clayton noticed that while his voice seemed pleasant enough, his eyes, squinted ever so slightly, seemed to peer into his soul. "Oh, you know, I would feel better if I wasn't strapped down and suspended in midair, but I assume that you can't help me with that." The man chuckled, genuinely amused by the snide remark. "You're right, I'm afraid I can't let you down quite yet. That can change very quickly though if you give me what I want. You see Mr. Haug, I'm a simple man. You treat me with respect, I'll do the same. My colleagues are a bit rough around the edges and I'll admit I was repulsed at the way the condition they brought you in, but they told me that you put up quite a struggle, hence why they broke your kneecap."** ** _Oh, those fucking Bounty Hunting, no good, AWOL sons of..._** **"no matter though, we can fix your injuries with ease. All we ask is that you provide us the information that we require. You'll be fed here in a few minutes, then I'll be back with some interesting questions for you. I suggest you prepare yourself for them." With that he snapped his fingers, turned on his heel, and walked out the blast doors in the front. At the same time, a guard with a tray of Synth Paste and Water walked in. He gave the leaving man a small salute as they passed each other at the door, then proceeded to set the tray down on Clayton's right, where there was a small table and a chair. He sat down and began eating ravenously.**

 **"Are you going to give me some of that?" Clayton asked. The guy simply sat there as if he wasn't there, devouring the food as if he had only seconds to eat. "Hey, asshole!" The guard gave him the finger without looking in his direction. He was now engrossed in a handheld device and from Clayton's perspective, it looked like he was reading the news. He strained to see what the headline said,** _Ithaca Museum Destroyed by Liberty's Own._ **It was all he could make out before the pain in his knee made his vision dark around the edges.** ** _So, Ithaca was attacked too? How long have I been out? One of our own… does that mean there's someone inside the Liberty military that works for Kusari?_** **That's when he saw the picture of the two "attackers". Damian Pohlman and his wingman Alice Hayn were right below the headline in a sort of mugshot-like fashion despite their poses representing them running away.** ** _There's no way that's what happened._** **He didn't believe it; couldn't believe it. His friend since preschool, gone mad to commit a crime against the colony that he served proudly? It didn't make any sense. He wanted to take the news article from the interested guard but couldn't. For one, he was unable to move and even if he could get it from the guard without fighting him (he would lose in a direct fight with the man for sure), it probably wasn't a good idea to give the notion that he knew Damian for fear of either of them being in danger because of it. Before he could think of another solution to snag the article, the doors opened again, and the first man walked back in. "Alrighty then, times up. I hope you prepared as well as you ate."** ** _In that case, I'm doomed._** **He decided to keep the snide remark up there than to let it slip out. "I will ask you this once, and only once. The questions I am going to ask you are questions that only you can answer. If you do not answer them in a way that I see fit, I am going to have bottomless stomach over there mess with your knee some more. If you spit at me or show me any disrespect whatsoever I will beat you to the point of death, revive you, and beat you again. There is much more at stake than what you can ever realize and it all falls on how you answer these questions. Do I make myself clear?" He could have been making something up but the man who left and the man who returned seemed to be different. It was the same man on the outside but the air around him seemed to change. He was no longer the calm, well-mannered gentleman that Clayton awoke to but rather a man that looked hungry. With a great strain to be as straight as possible, Clayton answered with a firm tone, "Crystal." The man's eyes softened ever so slightly as he heard this and pulled the chair out from under the guard at the table. "Go stand guard. We may be here awhile." With an angered look that quickly faded as he walked away shaking his head, the guard passed through the doors and onto the other side.**

 **"So, tell me your name Mr.…" Clayton was more frightened than before, but his personality still caught the best of him. The man raised an eyebrow in a strong frown as he slapped him across the face. "THAT, Mr. Haug, is none of your business and frankly, it is not very respectable either." Clayton was glad that his hands were restrained; otherwise he would have made some rude gestures that would have been even more disrespectful. "Now, I believe that I am the one that should ask the questions. Let's start with this one then: What is your name?" "You already know that. Why do you need another reminder? Are you too slow…" A strike to the side of his injured knee cut him off and made him cry out in pain. "I told you to respect me. I am getting sick of playing games. Now answer the fucking question!" With a pant and a wince, Clayton looked the unknown man directly in the eyes and answered, "Clayton…Fredrick…Haug." "Thank you, that's all I asked for. That wasn't too hard was it?" An impatient looked remained on his face as he paced back and forth across the chamber. "Didn't come prepared asshole?" As much as he knew the suffering the man could cause him, he just couldn't help himself.** ** _I think I'm going insane. Did they dose me with medication while I was knocked out?_** **As much as he wanted to blame an over dosage for his odd mood, the pain shooting up his left leg suggested otherwise.** ** _Nah, I'm just going insane to go insane. Wonderful._** **He took a moment to realize that the man seemed to have not noticed him as he was deep in thought. With a sudden turn he asked, "Okay Mr. Haug, what were you doing on Willard Research Station?" "As in why I was there? Or do you mean what activity was I performing?" The man started to strike Clayton's knee again but stopped when he saw that the bone was poking out already; there was not much more damage he could inflict. Instead, he turned around, took a deep breath, and turned to face Clayton again. "What was your job at Willard? Does that suffice to your annoying attitude?" Pain shot up through his leg and his vision was going dark around the edges, but Clayton looked at the man in the eyes. "I was a scientist. Doctor is my actual title, something that you seemed to forget about when addressing me—but it's cool! I'm not addressed as doctor by my family or friends either. Don't worry about it." The man nearly punched him in the face but stopped himself again.** ** _Okay, huge power problem if he must hit people as often as he does. Maybe I'm just a special case. Probably shouldn't ask him about it though. Well… No, don't waste your breath; he's probably easily agitated as well._** **"So, you're a doctor? What field of expertise did you put your talents towards?"** ** _Ah, that's why they brought me here. They want me to open about my work. How to get around this…maybe…_** **"Ah fuck, my knee!" "What's wrong with it?" "Are you blind? Just look at it!" He feigned hysteria as he nodded down toward his mangled leg. "You weren't complaining about it earlier. Why is it so bad now?" "Well I don't know, maybe the adrenaline is starting to wear off." It was a lame excuse, pure and simple. He knew it and if his captor didn't see it, then he was much better off than expected. "If your knee was bugging you that bad, you would have mentioned it earlier. I am rather appalled that you think of me so lowly that I would fall for something like that. My question remains, what did you use your talents for Mr. Haug?" He was out of ideas. "I helped in weapons research. They had me test a couple ideas that didn't work out very well." "Did you aid in the design of weapons for the arms race?" "That's classified intelligence that can only be revealed to top LSF officials. Now it's my turn to say that I am appalled that you think of me so dumb as to reveal that to you." He was met with yet another strike, this time right in his mouth.** ** _Now he's hitting me where I deserve it. At least it's justified this time._** **"I have to say, for such a great mind, you have such a stupid mouth. You're trying to fool me into thinking that you're of no use to me to get out here. Here's the problem I have with that Mr. Haug: if you are no use to me alive, then there's no reason to keep you alive." Clayton made an audible gulp. "So, what do you want exactly?" "I want the plans for the weapon you developed for Liberty. Everything from what it is, how it's designed, and the kill capacity that it's capable of. That shouldn't be so hard to get if it's in your head. If it is difficult well, I have my methods." He looked dead into Clayton's eyes as he brought out some sort of pointed device. Clayton was unsure what it was or what it did, but he didn't want to be at the receiving end of it. His head was swimming, but he was able to see two options; he could tell the unknown man working for the unknown faction about the top-secret information that would single handedly allow Liberty to win should the armistice come down to a full-scale war, or he could not say anything and die in what he assumed would be a horrible and excruciatingly long painful death in which he might reveal the information anyway. No, there was only one way to go about this. Before he could utter another word the man simply stared into his eyes with intensity. "You have one day, Mr. Haug. Do NOT waste your time. The clock's ticking. I would advise that you don't test me." With that, the man looked behind Clayton, motioned for two guards to step aside from the doors, gave him one last look, and walked past him out the blast doors from the imprisoned man.**

 ** _*Meanwhile on Freeport 4*_**

 **Damian opened the back hatch of his Defender and looked around the hangar bay from his cockpit for any signs of unusual activity. He had a photo plastered to the right side of the cockpit that he took a glance at before he left his ship. It wasn't very old, only a month ago, and yet it felt as if he aged at least ten years in that short amount of time. The background was of a bar scene, the one on Manhattan. Four people posed at the bar, the bartender appeared to be the one capturing the moment. On the left side was Courtney, followed to the right by Damian, followed by Dave, with Alice at the far right. Damian knew the moment and he knew it well, they had just gotten done with their 25** **th** **patrol route together and were out to celebrate that night. Although Dave wasn't old enough to drink, the bartender gave him a shot on the house. After all, not many patrols made it to 25 without being separated or killed in action. "Babe, you okay?" Damian looked behind him to see Courtney walking toward him. "Yeah, I'm alright." She saw him look again at the photo and sighed. "I'm still kind of shaken that he's gone. It seems so…" He went back to staring at the photo. "There's nothing you could have done. You guys were outnumbered with no communication." She placed her hand on his, resting on his chair. He looked down at the placement, then back at her. "I know but it still hurts. Dave was like a younger brother to me. I just wish…" he stopped himself then. The last thing he needed to do was break down in front of his girlfriend. After clearing his thoughts, he got up and walked with her out of the ship. "I just wish I could remember what the ships looked like." She gave him a puzzled look, "I mean I wish I could recognize them. I'd never seen them before and it's been bugging me." "Do you remember anything different about them?" "Babe, the ships were something that I had never seen before, they were all different to me." He could see her try to think of what else to ask, but it seemed she couldn't think of anything. Thankfully, she didn't have to as they were out in the hangar before he could answer, and Keegan, Logan, and Alice waved them over. "You guys ready to go and see who this guy is?" Keegan looked positively nerve wracked and kept his voice down despite the hustle and bustle of the maintenance occurring all around them. His hair (somehow) became mopped and messy during the flight to the Zoner base. He had dark bags under his eyes and seemed uneasy when standing. Something told Damian to ask what he found out, as he was clearly hiding something, but the uneasy feeling seemed to involve Logan somehow and it wasn't like he could just blatantly ask him right then what the problem was while they were all standing there. "Bar is on the right, through the long arm of the station." Alice said as she pointed towards a large circular blast door that must have led out into the long rectangular arm of the station. "I have a friend that worked at Ames Research Station in Kepler. The station is laid out the exact same way." Logan stuck out both of his arms in a gesture, "ladies first." "Gee, thanks." She rolled his eyes as she walked past him. After she was out of earshot, Logan turned to Damian, "She likes to play hard to get eh?" Damian just gave a small smile. He didn't have the heart to tell his friend that she wasn't into him. What seems obvious to most people was always hidden to Logan when it came to dating someone. Damian thought he always came across as too forward or was too attached too early. Like a fisherman reeling in his rod before he got a bite. Logan seemed happy enough with the smile Damian gave him and walked a bit faster to catch up to her.**

 **Now it was Damian's turn to ask someone a question. Slowing down a bit to let the shorter man catch up to him, Damian began prying. Thankfully, the board was rotting away. "Are you feeling okay Keegan?" Keegan, who had his head down as he walked looked up to signal that he heard him. Up close, Damian noticed that he had started to break out in a sweat and looked even paler than normal. His eyes seemed okay and he wasn't shaking violently so that at least meant that it was nerves, but what was he nervous over? "Keegan, you feeling okay? You look awful." He kept his voice in a whisper to not attract the attention of the others. He still didn't say anything; looking out the windows that showed the blue tinted gaseous cloud that was the Magellan system. Damian was starting to get impatient. "Dude, come on what's wrong with you? Ever since that flight you've…" Something dawned on him just then. He remembered the positioning of everyone during their flight from the jump gate to the station. "You were in formation with that head bounty hunter. What did he say to you?" Keegan tried to pretend he didn't hear him, but there was no mistaking the sudden focus that appeared in his eyes. "Keegan, you can tell me. It doesn't leave this conversation." Keegan checked ahead to make sure Courtney, Logan, and Alice were far enough out of earshot for his own comfort. "We have to distract Logan and keep him from going to the bar with us." Of all the things he could have said, something about this caught Damian off guard to a point where he nearly tripped over his own two feet. When he casually recovered, he asked "what are you talking about? He's a part of the team, why would we…" "Dammit just listen!" His whisper was starting to get louder. "It's not about the mission it's about the contact. The bounty hunter told me who he was, and we need to keep Logan away from him." "Who is he?" Keegan did another take at the others. "It's Marcus." Damian was completely lost. "Okay… so it's his brother, why is that such a big-" "Did you never hear what happened?" Keegan's whisper now turning into a slight hiss. "About?" They passed by a couple on their left that were in a shouting match about something that Damian couldn't make out. He was thankful that they were there, for it took some of the attention away from them. "There was a rumor floating around awhile back, maybe 7 or 8 years ago, that Marcus got mugged as he was coming home from his job at the Synth Foods factory when he lived on planet LA. Police report came up that he was killed during the crime because of a side arm laser through the gut, but they never gave his body to Logan or anyone else in their family." "How did they not get the body and still assumed he was dead?" Damian asked puzzled. "That's what the rumor was. If I had a guess, they said they already burned it or put it in a casket. There was a will and everything that the LPI gave to their family. They kept the entire thing hushed up and the only reason I know anything about it is because Logan told me a few bits." "So, what do you think actually happened?" Damian challenged. "Beats me but—" he nodded his head at an officer walking past them. "—if those Bounty Hunters were right, then Logan is going to be pissed." He continued when the look of confusion didn't subside from Damian's face. "If Marcus faked his death, Logan was left alone with the rest of the family and was forced to think his brother was dead. He's going to be enraged when he finds that his brother is still alive." Damian thought of what it would have been like to abandon his family, he couldn't even wrap his mind around it. Even looking at his own family, whom he was close to anymore, the idea seemed warped at best. "So why did he do it?" "I can't even begin to understand why man. What even bugs me is how, how could he do it? Enough about that though, if the bounty hunter was right and Ranger guy is Marcus, then this is all going to get really ugly."**

 **They made it about three quarters across the long arm of the station. Both Keegan and Damian were desperately trying to find a way to keep Logan out of the bar. "Maybe we can have him keep guard for Blackburn or Springer?" Damian suggested. "While I like the idea, I don't think he'd fall for a sudden 'oh by the way, we need you to stand guard' routine." His whispers got even louder and a trio of officers looking out into space looked back at them. "You sure? I think it would work wonderfully" Damian argued. "You can't tell me that he wouldn't be honored, hell, maybe we can convince Alice to go with him." He grinned at the thought of Alice giving him the finger as she walked out to stand guard with Logan. It gave him some comfort with the thought of Dave on his mind. Panic soon took his emotional state however as he realized that with a few more steps, they would be at the door and a larger than life family feud would plague them. "I swear, I think guard duty will work." Damian urged. "I don't know what if—" "Come on guys, catch up, we got to keep moving." Alice waved her arm in a forward motion when she noticed that they were behind. "Damnit" Damian muttered under his breath. Between the two of them, they had yet again failed to get behind a decision and now they had to deal with the bonanza that was about to ensue. It was hard telling how Logan would handle seeing his brother again for the first time in several years, but Damian was surer than not that he wasn't going to be very happy from what Keegan told him. Damian wasn't as good as reading him as Keegan was, the two were practically inseparable; the truest friends that Damian had ever seen. If he was worried about Logan, that was all the evidence Damian needed to see. However, there wasn't much that they could do; time was running out and their friends were waiting for them by the large door that led into the bar of the station. "Brace yourself and get ready to restrain Logan. We'll do it together." That was the only plan Damian could think of. If there really was bad blood like Keegan said there was, Logan was bound to lash out at Marcus.** ** _Well, maybe it will turn out okay. Maybe he thought things over and he'll be wearing something to hide his face and disguise his voice. Come on, please give us a break._** **He pled without knowing who he was pleading to.**

 **The break, Damian decided immediately, was not coming. When they got to the bar, he felt an odd air around the large room. It opened with a gold-ish tint amongst all the flooring and furniture. Three large windows to the front, left, and right of the bar opened to allow a view of space outside of the station. Booths lines the place and a "bartender" served the drinks to the patrons seated at the various spots. It was known as a bar but, as Alice pointed out during her previous ventures, there was not an actual bar but just the large open area. "The term is misleading, but it's how these Zoner bases work. I don't really get it either, but this is the same faction that's neutral to everyone that made this layout." Her head full of red hair scanned the area, looking for a possible person by the name of "Ruby Ranger". "Really though," Logan quizzed, "what kind of badass advisor to some of the most powerful people in the world uses the that kind of nickname? It's so..." Alice looked back at him "Prissy?" "That's a good word for it I think." "Ruby is my favorite color." "Oh," replied Logan sheepishly. She gave him a cocked eyebrow. He quickly rebounded when she rolled her eyes at him. "Not that there's anything wrong with the term 'ruby', it just doesn't fit the whole advising thing. I mean if you really think about it, the term 'ranger' doesn't really fit into the scheme either." She already began to walk around the bar, long red hair trailing behind her and leaving Logan behind with a heartfelt look of self-disappointment in his eyes. "Stupid, stupid, stupid." Damian head Logan utter to himself as he walked the opposite way. He felt for his friend. It was hard to imagine being so painfully awkward around women like that. Come to think of it, it was a common theme amongst at the very least Logan and Clayton. It was almost unbearable to watch them struggle with it, but it was what it was. He felt as though he should tell Logan to ease up on trying to impress her; that she was never going to fall for him, but he couldn't do it. He figured that he was going to have a hard time trying to figure out how his brother survived and why he left him and the rest of their family. He looked around, Courtney and Keegan with him, at the patrons. In the far-left corner, a man sat down with his jacket tossed to the left of him in the empty space of his booth. A drink sat in front of him and he seemed lost in thought. Damian looked to the right and saw two people, a man and a woman, possibly Zoners, sat together laughing with two drinks on the table.** ** _This place isn't that big. Where the hell could he be?_**

 **Out of the corner of his eye he saw him. A long dark robed figure stood in a far doorway to his right. The girls, who were heading that direction already, caught sight of him in that same moment. It was as if he had teleported out of thin air, but Damian knew better. His face was hidden, yet Damian got the strange feeling that he was looking at one person. As the group gathered around the strange character one thing was clear: he had his sights on Logan. Ignoring this, Damian attempted to confirm his identity. "You Ruby Ranger?" The figure said nothing and kept his head pointed towards Logan. He tried again, "Blake Booth sent us. He said you know of a path from here to Chugoku using only jump holes?" The figure said nothing and didn't move from where he was looking. This time it was Logan's turn to interject. "Hey, buddy, we don't have all day here. Quit fooling around and let us know what we want to know. And why the hell are you staring at me, you got a crush on me or something?" With a brisk action, the figure pulled down his hood and kept his head down. He didn't say a word, he only looked up again at Logan. Courtney gasped, Damian's eyes widened, and Keegan shook his head. Alice, not knowing who this person was, didn't make a reaction at all. The most intense reaction however was the one that came from Logan. Staying ready to restrain him, Damian got close behind him and prepared for the worst. Logan however, reacted with incredible speed that surprised the others as he lunged at his much skinnier brother. He held him against the wall with both hands and Marcus up in the air, a look of pure terror on his face. "Logan put him down!" Damian tried to pull him away but got a large elbow to the jaw. Logan slammed Marcus against the wall, garnering some attention from the other patrons. Keegan stood frozen seeing his friend act this way and the girls instinctively took a few steps back. "Good to see you too Logan." Marcus said in a rather calm tone that didn't quite match his expression. "You good for nothing... You have a lot of gall to show your face to me after what you did." "I had to. It was the only way I could prevent you guys from falling down the same poverty- infested line." Marcus looked eerily calm despite being pinned against a wall by his much larger brother. "You need to calm yourself instead of solely blaming me for the death of our family." Logan slammed him again. After flinching and wincing, Marcus spoke again, slowly and precisely, choosing his words wisely. "I may have been a bit hasty in my decision, but I had to leave. At the rate they were going, they were going to have all four of us skinned up and hanged to dry while they took everything we had." "So rather than try and find a solution, you take a drastic step that had a mere chance of working and left us alone? What you made us go through on our own was…" "despicable." Marcus finished. Damian watched, fascinated by the steel skin he was showing. "You're right," he said at last, "From your point of view, I was the bad guy. I ran away, I left the burden of being the head of the house on your shoulders without so much as a goodbye." He shook his head (as much as he could anyway) and continued. "Don't go around pinning the blame on me for running away. There's so much you've yet to understand, so much I never could tell you. Just please put me down. We can resolve this like civilized men instead of teenage brothers." Logan gave a slight look of thought, but then his grip tightened, and he slammed his brother against the wall once more. "I wish that there was some way to make this all easier, but—" Logan gave him a punch, the crack of what sounded like Marcus' nose rang through the bar. Damian, having been frozen through the entire time, ran over, threw Logan off Marcus, and shoved him. "What's your problem?" Logan just gave a small grunt as he stormed off, "I'm heading back to the ships. Come back when you guys are done with this cretin."**

 **Damian and Keegan hoisted up Marcus, who was clutching his nose as blood flowed out of it. "What the hell was that about? Why is Logan so pissed at you?" Marcus stood up and brushed himself off with his left hand, his right still clutching his nose. "Never mind that. What we need to discuss is what you all are here for in the first place. I have a private room in the residential area. Come on." "What about Logan?" Damian asked. "What about him?" "Marcus, you know how he'll react to all of this, he'll let it steam inside and then let it all out and get himself in trouble." "Yeah, and when he does, he can come crawling to me to bail him out so that I can refuse him. He can take his temper elsewhere if he doesn't want to play nice." Now it was Damian's turn to give Marcus a smack. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" "It's okay." Alice spoke up finally, both girls had been quiet, taking in what was going on before making a move. "I'll go to him and try to calm him down." "I don't know, Damian started, "What? At this point what harm could it do? He won't get angry at me. If anything, he'll just get awkward and too friendly again." As she said this though, she quickly looked away, as if she were trying to hide an emotion that her eyes would give away. "If you say so, go get him tiger." Damian grinned. "Fuck you." She said as she walked out the door. "I'm not sure what's more surprising. You guys being my clients for today, Blake being your leader despite his normally quite manner, or the fact that an attractive girl has a thing for my brother." "I wouldn't call it a thing. He's been pretty interested in her and as a result, been treating her like a princess. It's most likely some sort of guilt. Besides, if I'm being honest, you're not too easy on the eyes either." Damian said. "It's all subjective Damian. Still, this has been a very strange day. We need to talk, follow me."**

 **They arrived in a small room after what seemed like a half hour of walking to the other side of the station. It was hidden away from the main walkway and seemed to be used from time to time as a smuggling den. Now, it served as Marcus' Home for the few days he was supposed to stay at Freeport 4. As they walked in, Damian noticed several monitors, bits of paper with notes glowing on them, and holographic billboards keeping track of people, goods, and the like. "So, what is it you've been doing lately?" He asked, "I don't recall you ever being in the paranoia business." "Ah yes, it has been awhile since I've last made contact with you all." He said it as if he didn't even notice Logan and his outburst mere few minutes earlier. "Yeah…" Keegan said, otherwise breathless at the sight of all the scattered information. Damian looked over to see what he was going to say but any sort of response the smaller man had thought of fizzled just as quickly. "So, Blake contacted me and said you needed a trip to Kusari Space." Marcus said as he strolled over to his optronic mainframe. "I'm not going to ask why because it's none of my business. At the same time, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I don't have that sort of capability now. Had you been here about four days earlier, that might have been an easier pill to swallow." "So, you don't have anything waiting for us and the entire trip was useless then? Then why don't you tell us what's going on between you and Logan," Damian demanded. "I'm not telling you guys anything about that situation yet. It'll all come in due time. It's funny, if I can remember between you and Blake, you were some of the calmest and most quiet people in the planet. Yet as of late, you both have been rather irrational." Damian had nothing to say to that. So, he kept looking at Marcus, whose eyes still focused on the fast scrolling information in front of him, moving so fast it looked like he was nearly having a seizure. "I do have the coordinates to get to there. Only jump holes, right? Yeah that's what he said, I have them right here. I'll send it to all of your ship's navigation systems." The three of them looked at each other and back to Marcus, surprised at the speed he was working. "You do this stuff regularly?" Courtney asked. "It's how I've been making a living." He opened a room-filling projection from his seated spot on a table in the center of the room. It was filled with the kind of information scattered around the room (clearly on a much grander scale). "I've been keeping tabs on all black-market people and goods that come through the Freeports. I have information on nearly everything you need to know in terms of recent criminal activity. Smuggling rings, trade lane attacks, base raids, breached defenses, you name it, I got something." "How the hell did you get in this kind of spot?" Keegan asked, clearly amazed. "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When the sector hands you an opportunity—" "—Become the lead black market information specialist in all of Sirius." Damian finished, eyes still on the ceiling. "You made your own spot in a position that never existed before and one that's in high demand, that's—" "—Badass" Courtney finished. "Criminals never stop, so naturally, it's a safe job market." Marcus was now giving off a slight smirk, eyes still never leaving the screen. "You guys need anything else before you head on your way?" "For the trip, nothing. I'm still wanting to know why Logan is so heated about seeing you again. What exactly happened between you two?" Marcus tried his best not to take notice at the question, but when the silence in the room became unbearable, he ran his hands across his face and through his hair and sat back in his chair. "There was some miscommunication between us in the past. I did something foolish and he's still angry about it. Nothing more for you guys to get involved in, it's just stuff between brothers. Besides, you'll have much bigger problems along your journey to Kusari, what with Springer and the entirety of Liberty and Kusari after you and all." "Dude come on. I haven't seen him act like that since we were kids. There's something you're not telling us." Keegan replied heatedly. "Look, you all have little time to get to Kusari. I suggest—" "** ** _I_** **suggest that if you don't want to tell us what happened to Logan, that you fill us in on our actual mission is and why it involves the Blood Dragons." Damian interrupted, trying to get the two off the topic that suddenly became heated. That had been a question that nobody seemed to be asking. He just thought of it himself and cursed himself for not asking Blake the full details earlier on. Marcus gave a look of severe impatience and slowly began to speak. "Well, the Blood Dragons hate the current Kusari government, are opposed to the war, are some of the best fighter pilots in the colonies, are outnumbered gravely, and hate the foreign colonies as much as anyone. Their leader is a tactical genius and an ace pilot as well as a man of his word. From the sound of it, I assume Blake wants you to join the resistance and crush the armistice from the inside. Unless of course there's some other reason why he would have you do this." Damian and Keegan looked at each other, asking each other the same silent question: should they let him know the real reason why they were on their endeavor in the first place? Suddenly, a ringing tone came from Damian's comm link. "Damian!" Alice's voice rang in a yell. "We got company out here in the hangar!" She sounded scared, which was rare for her. Damian heard sidearms going off in the background and gruff voices shouting. "Where are you?" "In the corridor near the doors that lead into the hangar. They have us pinned down and Logan's been hit!"**

 ***Out in the windowed arm of the station, 10 minutes earlier***

 **Logan Johnson stood with his arms behind his back looking out into the deep space surrounding Freeport 4. His mind was racing, his heart was pounding, and his anger was evident.** ** _How in the hell did Blake find him? Why did Blake send us to him? What on earth has he been doing these past several years? That lying, no good rat, decides to show up in my life again after he died? Well at least now I know the truth. The rat bastard decided to leave me alone after what happened to the family, decided to go off on his own, fake his death, and never even say goodbye while he left me to fend for myself. It's all his fault. If we could have stayed together, if he would have just had a little more patience, we could have put an end to the Outcast rule on us. We could have been free._** **He punched the heavily reinforced see through material that made up the windows (glass wasn't practical for use on a space station for obvious reasons). "Hey, you feeling okay?" He turned around quickly to see Alice walking towards him. "Yeah, never been better. Seeing that asshole after all these years made me feel just peachy." "Asshole? He's your brother, isn't he? I thought—" "Yeah well, forget what you think for a second. He is nothing more to me than a traitor and an asshole." Logan turned back to the window. "What did he do to you?" Alice asked. There was a long silence out in the hall, Logan noticed that there was nobody else in the area.** ** _Strange, I would think…_** **he brushed the oddity out of his mind and turned towards Alice. "We used to be best friends, always looking out for each other, taking care of the sisters when Mom and Scott were working double shifts." He turned to look back out into the void beyond. "We lived on Trenton Outpost, Apartment 363. It was small, dirty, and just within our budget. Marcus worked an on-off job for Cryer, I couldn't find a job, and our sisters were just elementary-schoolers. We were constantly fighting just to stay out of debt and had to scrounge money together each month just to pay the rent. Things weren't great, but we all had, and cared for each other. Just like the old saying went, family is all you need." He walked over to a bench and sat down, feeling as if he was stuck in a void of his own. Alice stayed close but didn't think sitting down next to him would be appropriate. "Then one day, some shifty looking guys approached Scott, roughed him up, and sent him back to the apartment. Mom was in a panic, Marcus rushed the girls out of the room, and I did my best to get him onto his bunk." Logan rubbed his face with his hands, trying to not tear up as he told a story he never shared before. "I managed to stabilize him, but they broke several ribs and gave him a severe concussion. I knew that he would need medical treatment, but there was no way we could afford it. A few days later, Scott got fired because he couldn't show up for work, Marcus tried to pick up more hours at work, but got even fewer than normal, and Mom was a nervous wreck. I even started to lash out at my sisters because of the stress the family was under. Marcus and I started to become distant, Mom took up drinking, the girls were constantly fighting, and I felt helpless. We were falling apart at the seams and I could do nothing about it. Every night, I begged, wished, prayed, hoped for something to go our way; for something to come down and help us, mainly to help Scott as he slept in pain every night. One day, I thought my prayer had been answered. Two men showed up at our door, they claimed to be selling a 'miracle drug' that was supposed to cure all sorts of things. Physical pain, stress, psychological flashbacks, broken bones, brain injuries, you name it. I was desperate, it was the only thing I could do at the time and I had felt so powerless before. I thought that this was the answer I needed, the answer that WE needed to get our family back together. I took the last of my savings and pled with the strangers to give me whatever they could to help my stepdad. When they gave me the capsule, I was practically jumping for joy. I immediately ran to Scott and told him to take the pills. He was hesitant at first but did when I convinced him of how good he would feel." He leaned forward, head in his hands, and felt a hand on his shoulder, Alice was now sitting next to him. "What happened?" He looked up at her and felt tears in his eyes. "The Outcasts are going to pay with every bit of their life." "Oh my god, you mean…" "It was Cardamine. The men were right, it was curing his illness, but the moment he stopped taking the drug, he started to appear as if he was actually decaying." He started to sob, "we put him in a burial pod and sent him off. When we got back, Marcus was gone too. We were told he was killed in a mugging. They sent back a casket and everything." He sat there for what seemed like forever in silence. "There's more isn't there?" She asked with a sense of dread. Logan gave a quick exhale and continued. "Mom couldn't take handling the loss of both Scott and Marcus. She took up drinking to the next level and well…" He started to sob, "I found her-one day-in her bunk. Thought she had passed out-from a night out." He broke down entirely now, hunched over into his hands, body heaving from a now silent sob. "I took my sisters to an orphanage and dropped them off, told them that I would be back for them as soon as I could find a stable job." He shook his head again, "I went to visit them once a week, then it turned into bi-weekly visits, then I was lucky to see them once a month." He broke down again, "I haven't seen them in years, when I went back to the place, they weren't there. I guess that they're old enough to live on their own now." Alice just sat there in silence, she wanted to say something but there was nothing that she could think of. She thought that she had a relatively average family life, but the situation felt serene compared to the story that she had just heard. "Logan, I don't know what to say." He stopped sobbing, but his eyes were still red as he looked at her. He could have been mistaken, but there appeared to be some sort of glint in her eyes as well. Before he had a chance to investigate however, he was knocked off the bench by a side arm shot. Alice took cover behind the bench as more lasers blew by overhead. "Spread out and find the others, the rest of you, stay here and keep these two pinned down."**


	12. Chapter 11: Break Out

**Chapter 11: Break Out**

 **"So, let me get this straight." Keegan was still lost on the whole point of heading to Kusari in the first place. "We are not welcomed in Liberty anymore, so we need to head to Kusari space, so we can meet up with the most dangerous and rebellious criminal organization that they have, and join them in an effort to force the Governor's hand before war breaks out?" "Correct," Marcus confirmed. "So, the plan to get to Kusari space involves us taking a pit stop in New London to buy some ships, look like a convoy, and sneak our way past the Naval Forces through the Tau systems?" "Yep." Damian's turn to reply. "And we're supposed to meet the head of the resistance group, known as the Blood Dragons, who knows Blake personally and is always welcoming new recruits?" "Right." Courtney finished. After standing in silence for a second processing the whole idea, Keegan was convinced of all the reasoning except for one important key factor. "What are we going to do once we get there?" Silence. As hard to believe as it was, in the heat of what had recently occurred, there wasn't much discussion of** ** _what_** **they were going to do once they found the Blood Dragons. Everything had happened so quickly; the incident on the Missouri, the rush out of Liberty, and the whole way there laid a lurking paranoia that kept everyone else (and especially Keegan) occupied in thought. "That, I have no idea. Blake just wanted me to make sure that you guys got to the place. I'd imagine that if he's still around, he'll either meet or message you guys once you land." "Its just, I don't know. What if Blake doesn't make it out? You heard him, he and Rodgers are really testing the waters by doing this for us." "Keegan, he'll be fine." Courtney said. Damian was staring off into space as if he were recalling something. With a sort of lurch, he snapped back to reality. "I agree. If there's one thing that I know, it's that Blake can handle himself. He's one of the toughest people that I've flown with. If he can't stay hidden, he'll bust his way out of whatever situation that he gets himself into." Keegan was still unsure and began shifting his weight back and forth on each foot. Before he could question the plan any further, a news flash blared on Marcus' setup. "To all Liberty Bounty Hunters and peacekeeping forces: be advised there are several individuals wanted for questioning regarding the destruction of New Ithaca Station. Sending identity data now." In place of the news flash, a picture of Damian and Alice popped up, followed by a photo of Keegan, followed by another photo of Logan. "They're believed to be armed and will resist any attempt at being brought to justice. End transmission."** ** _Great, now they're ringing us all in the same criminal group. Well I guess it was only a mater of time before that happened._** **"Looks like you're all in a world of trouble now." Said Marcus, eyes glued to their photos. "Yeah well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. What's the situation like in Bretonia right now?" Marcus' eyes refocused as he visually seemed to hop back into his "work" self. Quickly hopping back behind his messy desk, he scanned his multiple monitors madly whilst mumbling to himself. "Dublin…New London…Leeds…" His eyes were darting around faster than Keegan had ever seen. Clearly, he had found his calling in life. After what seemed like a few minutes, he looked up again, his eyes back in focus. "In regard to Bretonia, things seem pretty stable. Most of the factions are staying neutral despite the rising tensions, and business seems to be normal throughout the entire region. The only thing that's popping up consistently is the headline '** ** _Mollys threaten to join Kusari_** **' but other than that…" He made one last check, making sure he didn't eat his words. "Yeah, there's nothing too out of the ordinary. Just look out for the unruly parties that run through Bretonian space and you should be mostly okay." Still nervous about the mission that they were tasked to but not wanting to waste any more time, Keegan went back to nervously shifting around on his feet. Satisfied with this reaction, Marcus looked back again at his displays, "Alright then, you better be getting back to Alice and Logan. You all have work to do as do I. Let me just—" His eyes grew wide and alert as he rushed to the other side of the room, directly to the wall behind the other three. "Marcus, what's wrong?" Damian ran over with him. "Caruto, motion to center." His voice was firm, but he failed to hide the hint of unmistakable panic. Keegan quickly assumed that Caruto was the name of his AI assistant because the desk, which Keegan thought was secured to the floor, moved to the center of the room, revealing up close to the others the situation. Discrete cameras were setup around the station and were hooked back up to monitors on the mobile automated desk. Keegan focused his eyes particularly on a camera that showed the hangar area of the station. Several men in black were seen moving about the area. All wielding side arms of some fashion and on one screen, they could be seen carrying Alice and Logan out to a ship of unknown identity, placing them near the on-ramp. "What the hell?" He was taken aback. "Who are those guys?" "Not sure." Marcus replied, moving over to his desk holding the monitors. "They've been showing up the past couple of days. Scouting the place out to see the guard shifts for this base. Since the IMG aren't around today, they must have scheduled a visit and found you guys here by coincidence. These guys may have showed up here armed, but I have a solution." Marcus pressed a button and the wall opened to reveal an arsenal. Small Arm Pistols, Rifles, Shotguns, even stun batons were all displayed as if they were waiting for whatever moment they were needed for. "Holy…" Damian wasn't the only one stunned, but he was the only one who could utter a sound. "I like to keep this stuff on hand just in case something like this happens." Marcus stated, strapping a sniper rifle to his back. "With the rising tension across the colonies, you have to be wary. Everyone grab some gear. We're going to bring these bastards a fight."**

 **"Are you fucking nuts?" Damian asked, unsure if he had heard correctly. "Yeah, sure, let's run straight at them. We have no idea who they are, we are out-numbered, out-gunned, and from the looks of it, out-skilled. Even if we knew who they were and what we were getting into, this is the exact opposite of what West Point taught us." Marcus didn't look up, loading and then holstering a pistol. "My response: no, I'm not nuts, yes, I am aware that we're outnumbered, and I'm also aware that West Point, along with every other organized military institution in Sirius, advises in big red letters in a really old text to not do what we're about to do." He turned and looked at them. "I really don't care. My brother, as angry as he is at me, is the only family I have left and they, well whoever 'they' are, seem to be taking him away from me. You both have brothers; Courtney has a cousin in a similar role. Think about if they were in his spot right now and then tell me I'm crazy." Keegan thought about his younger brother and, even though he thought him annoying at times, how much he would do to go out of his way to help him. "Okay Marcus," Keegan strode over to the table, still wishing there was another option but convinced that there was none and grabbed two pistols with holsters, EMP grenades, and a stun baton. He turned to look at Damian and Courtney, who looked at each other, then back to Keegan. It looked like they were still on the fence. "Come on guys, there isn't much time here." Marcus strode towards the door impatiently. They both whispered something to each other and ended with a quick kiss, it was clear that they weren't very confident either. Damian shuffled over to the table and grabbed a rifle while Courtney also took two pistols. "Alright, now that that's settled, let's get a move on." Marcus took off into the small hall bordering his room and the bar, the crew jogging with their new weapons right behind.**

 **The main seating area of the bar was, surprisingly, empty. Only a panicked bartender sat behind the bar, keeping a close eye on the gang as they walked through. "Marcus, I don't know what's going on here, but you better be careful. Whoever these guys are took hostages already." "Fear not Isaiah, I have an idea," Marcus said, vaulting over the counter, "just let me see the cameras to the hall and hangar." The bartender moved aside and gave access to the screen behind the counter. Although Keegan couldn't see what Marcus saw, his reaction told him everything. His eyes were getting larger and the blood drained from his face. "They have an army out there." He said in a solemn tone. "I'm counting at least 50 armed personnel. They have Logan and the girl tucked behind one of their ships. It looks like they're going to keep them there. I think they're trying to bait us out… yep, one of them just pointed at the camera, they are definitely waiting for us to come after them." "Still unsure of who they are?" Damian asked. "Still unsure. Though they don't look like they're taking many prisoners. Got a few equipment dealers and civvies already down and out from the looks of it."** ** _Well that's insightful._** **Keegan thought to himself. If Marcus still had no idea who the assailants were, then they had to be quite the remote bunch.** ** _Either that, or he was hyping himself over the top earlier_** **Keegan thought to himself. Before much else could be decided on what they should do next, a voice rang out into the bar via the communication system. One that Keegan recognized immediately, a slight twinge of crazy mixed with an involuntary laugh that echoed in mid sentence, sounding almost like a nervous tick. "** ** _Marcus, Marcus, Marcus. You are doing quite the awful job of extracting the VIPs. We've been here for quite some time and instead of five targets extracted safely, you have hung on to three of them and the other two were… retrieved in a rather rough condition._** **Keegan looked at Marcus, who's face was still bent over the monitors.** ** _Maaarrrrrcusss… finish your job or Mr. Blackburn will be very… very… ANGRY. We are not going to ask you again Marcus. Bring us the wanted or you will walk among them rather quickly."_** **A laugh that sent chills down Keegan's spine, just as it had the first time around, radiated through the nearly deserted station. He hadn't noticed it before, but the entire station, not just the bar, was void of other patrons.** ** _Okay, he said that the place was going to be unguarded, and that these guys were already making their way around the station the last few days. I wonder if…_** **The thought hit Keegan like a brick and he immediately tightened his grip on one of his holstered pistols. "Marcus, what the hell is he talking about?" Damian demanded, already positioned by the door. When Marcus turned around, he reached for his belt and Keegan knew what he had to do. Reacting only on instinct, with a swiftness that surprised even himself, he sprinted towards and vaulted over the bar, immediately drawing one of his pistols in midair and pointing it towards Marcus' head. Marcus immediately dropped the weapon he had tried to draw. Knowing the situation he had now put himself in. "That voice. I know that voice," Keegan said. Marcus looked up slowly from the monitor in a scowl. "You're a fucking liar. You sent Springer here after us. You betrayed us. The whole point of throwing us out there against that army was to hand us all over. Why? Why would you do that?" Marcus stood staring straight ahead, breathing slowly and calmly. Keegan tightened the grip on his pistol, waiting for some sort of drastic action by Marcus to be made. Out of the right corner of his eye, he saw Damian walking towards them both, seeming to have Keegan's back. Similarly, Courtney was also moving in on his left, side arm raised towards Marcus' skull. The three were closing in towards Marcus with the wall of the bar covering the fourth direction. "You have no idea what's going on here," Marcus uttered after what seemed like minutes. "Yeah?" Damian replied, "then you better start explaining before we shoot you outright." He took a deep breath and turned towards Keegan, making sure to look at the other two as well. "I mentioned that I have contacts on both sides, haven't I? Well, Springer contacted me a day before you arrived, a few hours before Blake reached out to me. He said that he was looking for a DSE employee by the name of Keegan Sabol. He sent me your personal information and your company photo. I said I could find someone to take care of him with no trouble." After glancing to see what kind of reaction was on Keegan's face. To nobody's surprise, Keegan pushed the barrel of his gun harder against Marcus' forehead. Putting his hands up a little bit higher, he continued. "When you deal with people like Springer, there's a consequence of some kind when you say no to a task. I don't think I need to tell you that people like him are a rare breed. Any sort of hesitance on such a request means that he is one permissive gesture away from having my head. I didn't ever think that one of the targets I would have to plan on apprehending would have been you, so I was in a tough spot. I knew that it was going to be difficult to both keep you alive and keep Springer from killing me, so I had been devising a plan for working the situation out both ways. That plan was thrown in the garbage when I saw the news of a recent prisoner escapade out of Alaska." He nudged his head to the left, referring to Damian. "I knew what was coming next and sure enough, I got a call from Blake. He said that the five of you were trying to get out of Liberty and into Kusari space. He told me that he didn't know who else to turn to as most of the Navy was not only pro-war with Kusari but thought that you and Alice were guilty of the charges of treason, murder, and the destruction of New Ithaca. He wanted me to get you here safely, hence the Bounty Hunter escort, which I was able to provide on a personal favor, but from there I was torn. Springer had just confirmed that he was coming to make sure that you guys were detained and if I told him otherwise, my life was over. So, I tried to make a 'best of both worlds' decision. I was going to detain you guys until Springer and his gang arrived, only to fake a scene where you guys break out and escape to your ships. That way, you could escape, and I would be left with minimum punishment as a result." He stopped talking for a minute and looked down at his feet, trying to think of what to say next. "Let me guess." Damian said, "Things didn't really go to plan?" Marcus shook his head. "I wasn't counting on the fact that Logan was going to be angry at seeing me again, storm out, and get captured. The plan was revolving around the fact that you all would have been together. You could feign both the capture and escape together. If nothing else, Springer told me that if I brought you four in, he would let Logan go because there were no crimes against him. Blackburn has no beef with him, the Navy has no beef with him, nobody has any reason to harm or keep him for punishment." "You actually thought Springer was a man that could be trusted with deals?" Keegan asked. "The guy reminds me of a comic book villain with none of the comedic charm. Why the hell would you trust him?" Marcus turned around, looking at Keegan dead in the eyes. "We had other deals just like this workout before, this was just another day in the business. Fucking Logan. He HAD to go and get caught by them." "Yeah well," Keegan took his weapon off safety, something that in hindsight he should have done before. "Maybe there was a reason why he was angry at you in the first place. You guys have some sort of falling out that we need to be aware of?" "Guys, this isn't really the time for that. We need to move." Courtney chimed in. Damian grabbed Marcus by the collar and held him up, similarly to how Logan did upon their arrival. He spoke quietly, yet there was a sinister vibe with his words that Keegan had never quite heard out of him before. Unable to har what he was saying, Keegan holstered his weapon and took a few steps back. Whatever Damian said to Marcus worked, the tension hung in the air like a toxic cloud. Marcus had the look of pure fear locked dead in his eyes. Keegan was appalled as well. Marcus' face went ghost white at whatever Damian whispered to him. Keegan was not only appalled at that fact but at Damian's menacing stature as well. Something had happened to him since their last time at the bar together. Even Courtney looked concerned regarding what just happened. The normally mild demeanor long gone from him and an expression that could cut through Niobium stayed in his gaze.** ** _Something happened to him,_** **Keegan thought. Okay, that much was obvious, but what had happened between yesterday and now?** ** _It's only been a day since we were hanging out and had to drag him, seemingly drunk, to Clayton's ship. Maybe I should ask what's bugging him later._** **Keegan quickly came back to the situation at hand as Damian opened the door. Marcus just shivered even though there was no draft; his sly, confident demeanor no longer evident. Keegan even noticed a hint of panic in his movements.** ** _Glad I'm not the only one is scared shitless of this guy._** **"Keegan, ease off a little bit. Let him get to the console." Keegan, very hesitantly, gave Marcus breathing room so that he could move freely. Marcus didn't move at first, but he eventually strode around to the front of the countertop and over to the console by the door. After a few seconds of once again doing nothing, Damian hit him with the butt of his rifle. "Fucking move it. Send the message." Marcus hit the speaker option on the panel in front of him and a loud echo rang throughout the station. "Springer, this is Marcus. I have the perpetrators; I'm coming out with them as soon as you release Logan." A heavy breathing took over the station comms and an intense, uneasy feeling settled into the pit of Keegan's stomach. "Are you SURE about that Marcus? Because we've TAKEN one of them with your brother already." "Yes, I'm sure. We'll be coming out of the bar. I need your men to stand down and not fire when they see us." "If you PULL any TRICKS on us Marcus, Blackburn will be VERY ANGRY… I will be very ANGRY." "It's not a trick, I promise. Give me one minute and I'll have them ready for you." With that, the station comms went quiet. Damian motioned to Keegan and he took the initiative to point his pistol back at Marcus' head. "It's going to be over for you guys." Marcus said looking at Damian. "Once they realized I've been had, you're all dead meat. You think Springer values my life more than yours? His business partners are expendable. Blackburn doesn't care what happens to them. He tells Springer to always prioritize the persons of interest. He's not going to keep me alive." "Your concern is touching, but it would be better for you to worry about yourself over us." Damian opened the door and peeked out across the hall. There was a squad making their way towards them. Without warning, Damian shoved Marcus in front of the door. "Wait, can't we negotiate this or something? You know what he'll do to me if I fall into his hands." Even Keegan was getting sick of the whimpering traitor at this point. It was easy to see where Marcus could make the most of his skinnier figure and it wasn't through fighting or bravery. "Well Marcus, I don't really give a damn, we are going to try and trade you for Alice and Logan whether you live or die." Damian leaned over and whispered in Keegan's ear, "make sure you take things slow as your walking and whatever you do, keep that gun to his skull. He's still too shifty for my liking." "Any other advice?" Keegan asked, a shake prominent in his voice. "Yeah, stay calm and use your head." Not sure how to respond, Keegan just nodded and walked Marcus out with Damian and Courtney on either side of him. The long hallway leaving them wide open to the hostiles on the other end.**

 **"Just keep your head up and dive when I give the cue. Just in case things are going to get hot really fast." Keegan whispered to Marcus. "Oh, and incase you didn't get the memo, if you try anything funny, you're dead." Keegan kind of wishes he hadn't added that last part. The way he said it made it sound like he wasn't really convincing** ** _himself_** **that he could kill Marcus and he could only assume what Marcus thought about it. Whatever happened, Keegan hoped that the decision of whether to kill Marcus didn't have to be a decision he would have to make. Regardless, he stood tall, gun pointed to Marcus, as they walked down the hall. Damian stood to his right, while Courtney was on his left. Slowly they stood tall and walked down the hall, trying to make as little of a presence as possible so that they could make their way down a good way. Even though he thought it was a foolish plan, he had nothing better than what Damian had thrown down onto the table. He was taking notice of the places that he could fly near to if shit hit the fan. He noticed that the benches that were double-sided and ran down the length of the hall. The base of them were large enough to take cover behind if he laid flat. Along the walls also sat metal braces of some sorts that would also work should things get ugly. Still, he was hoping for the best. Lasers flew by Keegan's head and Marcus forced himself out of his grip and flew to the floor. Reacting immediately, Keegan flung himself to the ground, trying to hug the base of the benches. He took his side arm and shot down the hall blindly, still trying to stay hunkered down amidst the laser fire. As he reloaded, he looked to see where everyone had situated. He saw that Courtney stayed behind a brace on the left wall and Damian did the same on his right. Marcus stayed on the ground and tried to slither away from them. Without saying a word, Damian shot him in the leg, stopping his escape in his tracks. Marcus didn't move, it wasn't a fatal shot, but he started bleeding profusely. Damian ran out and pulled him back behind the right wall with him; Keegan and Courtney providing ample cover fire. The unknown hostiles were taking a similar strategy to them, hiding in similar spots and moving from cover to cover towards them. "Some bargaining plan Pohlman!" Keegan shouted, amongst the chaos. "Well I thought it was and I didn't really hear any objection from the clown committee. If you didn't like it, why didn't you say something?" They both took a few more shots, a groan down the hall signaled they hit someone. "You're the big and bright Navy pilot, I trusted that maybe this plan wouldn't go ass up as soon as it left port." "You're lucky there's shots flying otherwise I would—" "Guys, this isn't the time." Courtney said, peeking and killing two more of the unknowns with sharpshooter aim. "Harp on each other like women elsewhere, let's focus on getting out of here!" Before they could say anything, she advanced to the next brace, reaching it with a somersault that looked like something out of a cheesy spy movie. The two men glanced with spite at each other before focusing their anger at their enemies and firing shots down the hall. After firing their rounds, they fell back into cover and Keegan pointed his head towards Marcus. "What we going to do with him?" He noticed that Marcus' eyes were closed, and he was turning pale; symptoms of shock from his leg wound, the damage more than necessary for keeping him down. "No clue, one thing at a time." Damian shot the closest guy to them in the chest, the force of the shot knocking him to the ground and burning a hole through his heart. The last guy made a bolt for the door and was downed immediately by Courtney, a shot in the leg crippling him a few feet away from the far exit. "Keegan, stay with Marcus and make sure he doesn't die." It was an empty command made by the Navy pilot, there wasn't much Keegan could do to help him. The other two didn't seem to care that much however as they strode over to the injured man crawling towards the door panel. With a step on his hand, Damian forced the weapon away from him and kicked it towards the wall. Keegan couldn't quite hear what was being said, but he could assume it was threat, followed by some torture… on second thought, he really didn't want to watch.** ** _Gotta check on Marcus._** **He checked his pulse: still breathing. His leg looked pretty mangled though.** ** _These side arms were the real deal Mark. Too bad they had to come back and bite you in the… leg, I guess._** **He tore off a piece of his suit and did his best to try and stop the bleeding. A soft moan from the wounded man accompanying the action. Wrapping up his makeshift bandage, Keegan heard Damian returning from the other end. "Good news, that's the last of these guys we're going to have to fight for a short while. Bad news, the door won't open. I think they're jamming it from the other side. Whatever the case, they know we're coming and are going to be waiting for us on the other side. How's that asshat holding up." "Well," he finalized the knot, "I'm not a medic, but I think I stopped the bleeding for a little bit. So, what now? Any idea on how we're going to break out of here?" They all took a survey of the hall for anything they could use to aid in their escape. Unfortunately for them, little aside from the dead bodies, scattered side arms, and benches filled the long stretch of hallway. Suddenly, Courtney suggested an idea. "In the ceiling, there's a ventilation shaft." "Yes, that is where air flows." Damian replied to his girlfriend sarcastically. "No shit," she replied and hopped up onto a bench. "From the looks of it, we can get to the hangar by crawling through it. I think there's even a split. Keegan and I can crawl through while you look after Marcus. We can open fire from the vents as soon as you open the door and hit them from multiple sides. If we're lucky, we will be in the wall of the hangar and have a few vantage points." "Do we really need this sleazy snake anymore?" Damian asked, lightly kicking Marcus with his foot. "I say the guy is a liability. He tricked us, who's to say he's not going to do it again?" "I want to have him around. Give him another chance. He was caught with life threatening pressure from two parties and made the decision to save himself and his brother. Don't tell me you wouldn't do the same for yours if you were stuck with the same luck. Besides, the kind of information he has could prevent us from getting into trouble on the way to Chugoku." Keegan was unsure how to handle the sudden change in authority. He couldn't get a read on if this was a relationship issue or an actual power struggle from within the group. All he knew for sure is that the plan to bust out was a long shot. So was barging in there, guns a-blazing from an open choke point into a waiting enemy that outnumbered them. Not to mention, no other ideas were coming to him and they were still on a timer. "I'm game so long as we keep Marcus alive. Courtney's right, with his knowledge of criminal locations and system mapping, he might have some useful information to help our escape." He said, once again trying to convince himself more than anyone else. Damian just had a slight hesitant shaking of the head and shrugged. Clearly not wanting to agree but being outvoted. "Then it's settled, we'll get into position and provide cover fire from the hangar." She hopped onto the top of the bench and popped off the vent cover. "Boost me up." Damian strode over and put her foot in his hands, telling her to be careful, and hoisted her up. "You picked a good one there. She's got some fine ideas and an attitude dude." Keegan remarked assuming she was out of earshot. "You bet I do. Now come on." Her voice echoed. "Just don't go toting Marcus around. I'm not sure he's stable." Keegan told Damian before being boosted into the vent. If he heard, Damian gave no response and closed the grate behind him.**

 **After a quick boost, Keegan found that the vents needed to be cleaned more than anything else. Black soot covered the floor, sides, and even roof of the narrow ventilation shafts that he and Courtney were now crawling through. With a near quiet beep, he pulled up his comm link to hear a hushed Damian now speaking to him. "I'm going to watch the other door, keep comms open incase I need to send a signal." "Roger." He slowly inched his way along the vents, trying to keep as quiet as possible so as to not blow their cover. Courtney was several feet ahead of him, taking a left on the two-way junction in the system. His comms opened up again, "take the right side, we'll use the height to our advantage and get them stuck in the crossfire." Keeping his quiet and steady pace, Keegan soon found himself at the other end of the vent. The grate was barred with gaps just large enough for him to fit his pistol through. Surveying the area, he noticed that the grates were about ten meters off of the ground and were built into the wall of the hangar, giving quite a drop off should he or Courtney fall out. The hangar was larger than he remembered when they first came aboard the station. When he looked out the vent, he noticed that he hadn't really paid attention to the hangar area when he first arrived on the station. At the time, it seemed trivial at the time, instead worrying about Logan's reaction to seeing his brother again. Taking the time to check out what he was working with, he noticed that the walls wrapped around the main area in the form of a gigantic hexagon. The vents were located at the direct middle of each wall as they wrapped around the ships and equipment area. He noticed that the ships of the hostiles were that of the Stiletto model, signaling to him either Lane Hackers or Outcasts. Trying to find Courtney's vent, he couldn't quite see where she went. "Did you go to the closest vent to the door? I can't see you?" "Vent at your 10 o'clock." He heard her whisper back over the comms. Across a distance he couldn't quite guesstimate, he noticed a small glint of metal protruding from the said vent. "Roger. Got you identified. Any idea when we should start shooting?" "Let's wait for them to finish their dilemma. It looks like they're fighting over something." She was right. Despite the size of the hangar, he could hear the hostiles talking amongst themselves. Keegan did a quick count and assessed that there were at least two dozen bogeys in total. A mixture of both men and women made up the ranks. They had barricaded the door with equipment racks lined with ship weapons. Most were taking cover behind the weapon racks, but some had taken positions directly by the door in order to spearhead a potential breach. Keegan looked around for the equipment dealer and found him dead by Logan's Hawk. What Keegan felt was the most odd about the whole situation was the fact that in the midst of their mission, the unknowns all seemed casual about their circumstance. Some were cleaning their side arms, others were betting on how long it would take for their CO to figure out how to breach the door, and even others were checking out the giant ship weapons that they were taking cover behind. The whole spectacle reminded Keegan more of escort training school more than anything else. The casual behavior was interrupted however when the CO spoke up. "Simmons, are we ready to go after this guy yet? I'm about tired of waiting and playing the nice guy." The CO, to Keegan's surprise, was not actually Springer, but one of the guys Keegan got into a fight within Pittsburgh; one of Springer's cronies, once again left to do his bosses' dirty work. He found it humorous that it was also the one guy that he had gotten a good hit on, the brown, flat-topped hair was the one feature that stood out from where Keegan was viewing. "Uh, no commander Andersen, we have a slight problem going on with the main door." "What kind of problems?" Keegan didn't hear the next part of what the second in command said, but he didn't really need to: "What do you mean the door's sealed shut! Who the hell sealed it? We were supposed to keep it open to force these guys into an ambush." "Sir, I don't know whether it's sealed or not, but the locks aren't in place, we didn't seal it from our side, and it still won't open." Andersen, in a fit of rage that mimicked Springer's well, roared in anger and swung at the second guy. "That fucking rat Marcus. Springer told us that he was going to have everything under control. Why can't anything go to plan around that guy? When I get my hands on that Deep Space asshat from the bar, there's going to be hell to pay for what he did to me back on Pittsburgh." He turned to Simmons, "find whoever sealed that door and beat them to death, the rest of you better find a way to get this door open or so help me, I'm bringing every last one of you down with me." "A man full of charm and cheesy, not well thought out threats." Courtney remarked over the comms. As he was smirking, Keegan had a very disturbing thought. Of a sort of third party wandering the base. The Freeport was an Independent Mining Guild base, one of the only Freeports not owned by the Zoners, yet he had yet to see a miner on the station. The real red light, however, came in the form of confusion by the hostiles on opening the door.** ** _If we didn't lock the door, and they didn't lock the door, then who locked the door?_** **Before he could mull over the thought too much, a shot rang out from his 4 o'clock. The hangar exploded into gunfire. The hostiles hurdled over the racks that they were once hiding behind and began firing from the opposite side away from the door. Blinded by the position of the vents, Keegan strained to see who fired the first shot. If it was another hostile, he would rather see the two factions kill each other before engaging the leftover.** ** _Who else could there be that would be after us?_** **As the fighting continued, Keegan wondered who the numerous hostiles could possibly be having a hard time with. He was thinking about asking Courtney about the situation—his vent causing a blind spot on the new contender and her's looking at the perfect angle. He didn't have to ask however as Courtney said four words "He's alone. Jumping out." With no time to ask questions before she did it, Keegan watched as Courtney kicked the cover off her vent and hopped down behind a crate.**

 **It wasn't exactly logical to hop out of the vent and blow his cover, but Keegan had very few other options. It was the one shot they had of getting off the station in one piece, as weird as that sounds. Looking down, he noticed that he didn't have the same kind of cover that Courtney did if her were to jump. He then noticed the fire heading in the direction of Courtney and took one last breath before jumping into the action himself. When he landed, he immediately went to his belly and began to fire upon the foes, trying to draw their fire away from her. When they turned and fired back, Keegan made use of his speed and dove behind his own stack of crates. He found a blown apart robot was also an inhabitant of the spot and smacked his head on the metal bits leftover. Seeing stars, he tried to fire again but was immediately downed by a laser that hit him square in the left shoulder. Pain seared down his left arm and up to the back of his eyes. It wasn't supposed to be a lethal hit, but something was keeping him down. Out of his left eye, he saw the blast door explode and shots fired out, knocking down several more of the tangos. Damian rushed out from the entrance and continued the onslaught with Courtney as they worked their way down towards who Keegan assumed was the "lone" man. Trying to stand up, Keegan fell forward on his stomach, now feeling groggy to the point of nausea. He started to crawl, firing at anything he thought was moving and wasn't wearing blue (since Logan was the only friend not wearing Navy apparel). He managed to move about 15 feet before finally realizing that not only was he getting further into an exposed position, but also that the fight was pretty much over. He was trying to see where everyone was, but his eyes were refusing to work.** ** _What the fuck was in that sidearm? I can't see shit._** **His vision looked as if he were trying to peer through a dark, grainy filter. His head pounding, and arm burning, he made a grunt and focused on trying to get to his feet. He managed to get on his knees before slumping forward once again.** ** _Come on legs, work with me here._** **With one last attempt at standing, he was able to get up to one knee before darkness surrounded his vision, the voices of his friends in the distance fading with it.**


End file.
